Cardboard: An unexplored material.
The INCO WEEK’s final speaker was V.S. Karthic Rathinam, the founder of Out of the Box. Out of the box is a new and unique start-up that is obsessed with cardboard. They are constantly inventing new and imaginative ways to use cardboard. They aim to launch a new trend by creating magnificent and one-of-a-kind cardboard furniture. Their furniture is lightweight, eco-friendly, waterproof, and long-lasting. Making it portable and undeniably superior than other types of furniture.
Cardboard is a great alternative to traditional construction materials. It is composed of paper, an environmentally beneficial material that is simple to treat and recycle. In the architectural community, there has been some debate concerning the strength and longevity of cardboard as a building material. It is commonly regarded as a substance having inferior characteristics and strength, as well as a disposable material. Cardboard is inexpensive and often free.
After a few Amazon transactions, the stored boxes contain all of the materials required for the next project. Cutting, shaping, folding, and stacking cardboard is simple. It serves as a strong support material in one direction and is incredibly malleable in the other due to its corrugated shape. A delicate flower or an industrial metropolis can be created using cardboard. Cardboard can be painted and varnished, or it can be left unfinished. It’s the best building material for all ages of producers.
“Building strength has nothing to do with material strength; even concrete buildings can be destroyed by earthquakes, while paper structures cannot.”
Cardboard, in keeping with this notion, performs extraordinarily well when properly designed and treated. It can be utilised as a construction material in a variety of ways, including paper tubes and honeycomb panels. The major goal is to lessen environmental impacts by utilising the potential of a recycled material as the principal structural and cladding component, which can then be recycled once it has served its purpose.
Karthic opened the workshop by asking the students if they believe cardboard is as valuable as any other medium for product creation. The INCO WEEK’s last workshop was a flurry of activity and competitive energy. The students were quite enthusiastic about this workshop because they were allowed to create an entirely new product. This was a group assignment, and the students were given 30 minutes to come up with new furniture concepts, which piqued their interest.
“The medium of cardboard has impacted a new type of artists to not only experiment, but to spark their imaginations and create a utilitarian material often unrecognizable because to its price, availability, sustainability, and forgiving nature.”
The activity was reviewed in a really creative way as the students completed it. To learn how strong the furniture was designed, one of the students was requested to stand on each of the designed products. The evaluation procedure was continued based on how much weight the product could hold. Not only the student but also the faculty also checked the ability to withstand weight, instilling greater passion and enthusiasm in the students. They were ecstatic to have designed furniture and to have it appraised in front of them.
Out of the box also gave a modest prize to the teams that were able to build furniture that could bear the weight. This kept the students thrilled and fascinating, and that kept them motivated throughout the session.
After the evaluation, the speakers were open to discussion, DOT students came up with some insightful and engaging questions that astonished the speakers as well. The questions ranged from the thickness of the cardboard to the aesthetics of a product. Understanding the students’ curiosity, members of OUT OF THE BOX expounded on these questions, ensuring that the pupils understood the underlying concept.
By the end of the workshop, the students had a better understanding of the various types of cardboard and how they may be used in distinct and different ways in product design. The students’ and speakers’ enthusiasm was well worth the effort. The speakers were given a memento by the DOT SCHOOL OF DESIGN as a token of appreciation.
This marked the end of INCO WEEK 2022.
