You're listening to AC N A podcast. We've all seen the rise of fast fashion and its negative impact on the environment. But have you ever stopped to think about the chairs and tables that furnish our homes and offices? It turns out fast furniture, our obsession with swiftly changing styles and budget friendly buys but also be adding to the climate crisis more than we realize. In fact, a 2018 EU report found that nearly 11 million tons of furniture is thrown
away every year. That's roughly five chairs for every house in the eu only 10% is recycled. The rest is incinerated or sent to landfill
waste is an opportunity you're doing any process in your business at your home and you're generating this waste that you're unhappy with. Don't just assume that it's inevitable, but that's an opportunity to do something else with that
waste. That's Peter Ortner, assistant professor of architecture and sustainability design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He's the mind behind the zero waste folded shell furniture crafted entirely from discarded cardboard can sustainable design. Rescue us from drowning in a sea of disposable furniture. Peter joins us today. To share his insights and solutions Peter. Welcome to the Climate Conversations.
Thank you really glad to be here.
I mean, let's first delve into what's put you on this journey of invention and sustainable design. Sure.
I'm a professor at SUD. I teach architecture and sustainable design. I've always been interested in sustainability, but since I started at SUTD, I've had a chance to kind of put that into practice. When I was first starting at SUTD, they invited me to design their open house. This is a regular event. They hold it every year and they invite the faculty to design it as this kind of fun way to show off that we're makers, we can design things. So I was new in Singapore.
I had just started at this university and I looked at what happened in the past and I said, OK, I want to do something different and I want to create something that has the maximum utility but has the minimum impact on the environment. And from that initial position, I started just looking at materials, I looked at what can I use, what can I work with to make something that's really useful but is going to have
this minimal impact. And the answer turned out to be paper, which it's not conventional for furniture, it's not conventional for architecture. But the reality is it can be quite strong, it has a low environmental impact, especially if you get it from the right supplier, it's from a renewable resource. And if you're in the right location, it can be recycled as well, which is really ideal. But then of course, you're stuck with a sheet of
cardboard or paper. And this problem, how do I make something that's useful that's strong, can be reused that people will actually like and respond to. And that design challenge has been really fun to work with. And I think that it's going to be kind of an ongoing project for myself. And also I think for a lot of people, it's kind of an interesting project to engage with.
So the idea was initially sparked from paper and evolved into cardboard eventually. That's
right. I've done a few generations of this actually. So just for some background, the first generation I built like a tank because I was really afraid of what's going to happen with something made out of paper or cardboard with people that I don't know using it in situations that I can't foresee. So I went through the design process from
kind of a defensive position. I built something that was big, it was sturdy, it was thick, the joints were extra strong and that design was really successful and those tables are still in use four years later for something made out of cardboard, I didn't anticipate that. That's amazing that it's still around four years later. But the other thing that I hadn't anticipated was I cut
the budget in half, more than in half. It was like 30% of the budget because the cardboard was much cheaper than the materials that we've been using in the past. And this was really exciting for me in retrospect, because it showed us that we could do sustainability in a way that was really cost effective. That's also really exciting when we talk about green business and business opportunities and getting out of this trap of
the green premium. But the story from this year is I came back to this design and I said I'm going to do a new generation. And this time I want to show that sustainable design doesn't need to be minimal. It can be fun, it can be playful. We can have a variety of different shapes and forms that we can play with. Yeah,
talk to us about the range of possibilities here. Can it be adapted to other design
needs? Yeah, in terms of different design needs, the first generation was designed as a podium which is a display podium for an exhibition. So it's kind of boxy and the current generation, the paper shell table. This version is a table with legs that you can put your feet under. It can be used as a study car but also can be used as a display podium. And for this, I went and looked at the paper fold. So this idea that if you fold a sheet of paper in half, it becomes very strong,
it can stand up on its own. You can remove actually some of the material that still stands. This allowed me to move away from something that was of this kind of rectangular box to something that was a series of folded triangular shells that could combine together into something that was more freestanding that you could put your legs under as
well. And you're making these furniture solely relying on folding. I find that fascinating. I mean, how do you fold them into something sturdy without needing extra support?
I mean, there's a couple of factors here. One thing is the technology that I'm using. I'm not actually cutting these by hand. What we're using is a digital cutting tool called a Zoomed. It's a knife cutter and it cuts out the piece, but it also can cut at different angles which allow us to achieve a very strong folds that stay at a specific
angle while the piece is assembled. What I found in this case was when I took these triangular shelves and I laid them out on the flat sheets of material for fabrication. I was getting a ton of leftover wasted material cutoffs is what they're called. I went back to the drawing board. I calculated how much was being wasted. It was almost 30%. And this was really unacceptable to me from this kind of starting position that I want to create something with
maximum utility but minimum impact for the environment. So I had to rethink the whole process for this generation of the design. And what I did is I kind of redesigned power. The pieces were laid out in the flat sheet so that the pieces that were left over were shapes that were usable in the end. So I was able to combine them together to make a stool. So an additional piece of furniture,
I did see that very intricate layout of your designs. Do you call this a blueprint?
Yeah, that's the cut sheet. So that's the file that you send to the machine that sit out. It's called the cut sheet. You know, in the past, I've done research on using optimization to create these cut sheets. So using an algorithm to do it. But in this case, I did it largely manually where I was moving these pieces around and looking at the shapes that were generated and thinking. Yeah, this could make a great stool. You know, maybe I can find another piece that can fit into this. Did it
help that the fact that you're an architect who has a sort of a unique perspective to envision structures in a multidimensional way?
Maybe if I were to flatter myself on it. But no, I think that this is something that everyone can engage with, right? Is this idea that waste is an opportunity. If you're doing any process in your business, at your home and you're generating this waste that you're unhappy with. Don't just assume that it's inevitable, but that's an opportunity to do something else with that waste, that waste can become something new. And I think that design training is great. Maybe it
can help you think through that. But I don't think that we should say that this is something that only designers should do. I think everyone can do this.
Well, that's very encouraging. How easy or hard is it to make them? Can we put it together?
Yeah. Ok. So from the beginning, I have designed this furniture so anyone can assemble it. The furniture is actually made with no glues and no fasteners. I did this because I want it to be recyclable at the end. Right? And if you're gluing things together then like have to rip it apart and it's terrible
to recycle. So these are all designed with friction based tab slot joints, which means if I give you the pieces in about 10 minutes, you can fold it up and slip the tabs together and it holds together, it's quite strong.
So how much weight can cardboard actually
hold? Right? Ok. Well, so in this case, I'm using something that's pretty thick. It's 1.6 centimeters thick and it can hold the weight of a person sitting on it easily, comfortably. So that was the kind of test for me, right? Is I want this when somebody who doesn't know what's going on shows up and like on this is not going to collapse and has passed that test multiple times already.
Ok. So let's talk about durability and maintenance. What happens if I let's say accidentally spill something on it, what would happen? Ok.
This was also a big worry for me and actually brought in a second material to handle this, right? Because when you have these temporary events, you have a lot of people running through. If it's an open house, it's an exhibition. They always have a cup of coffee and some percentage is always going to spill that cup of coffee. So in this case, I selected another material that was waterproof. So there's a cardboard top surface and then on top of that, I have a recycled pe t felt sheet. It's
recyclable, right? It's a plastic, extremely resistant to any kind of scuffing or tearing or bending in a way that the cardboard isn't and it's also waterproof.
And of course, we are living in a humid place like Singapore. How long can these furniture
last? Yeah, I don't know. You know, the first ones that I built in December 2019, they're still around. We should probably set a lifespan for them. I think four years is probably reaching the maximum life span pretty soon, but it's surprisingly durable. It's exceeded my expectations, which is exciting and interesting. But, you know, I think we have to be realistic as well. It's cardboard furniture and it can take a certain amount of use, it can take
a certain amount of disassembly and reassembly. But after a certain point, it does reach the end of its life, then we can recycle it again. We need to responsibly recycle it.
So Peter, let's talk about the aesthetics. How do you approach making furniture look good when it's all recycled materials?
Yeah. So the material that I'm using has recycled content in it but it's remanufactured. So it looks like a new material. It's not something that is reused from a previous application. What's the aesthetic for this? I think that what I would love is for a design that when people see it, they respond to it as something that is telling a sustainability story, they look at it and they say, oh, I can see this is made from cardboard and also I can see how this cardboard joint works.
And maybe then they can ask, you know, why is it cardboard or can I take this apart? Can I have a relationship that's more interactive with it than just looking at it and saying table, maybe that's more than just an aesthetic or different from the anesthetic. But yeah, that's my goal is when you look at the construction, you start learning the story about this object and maybe it helps you understand what is sustainability or what sustainability can be.
Who does this sort of work appeal to? You said the reaction's been great so far.
I think that there's interest in terms of any kind of application where it's got a shorter lifespan or a lot of turnover or a lot of change. So this isn't necessarily just at events, but it could also be for people that are living short term in a rental space or have a new apartment or something and are interested to have some kind of quick, easy
furniture that they can assemble and use. So I think there's interest in this, I think it's definitely a possibility and there's also some risk with that too though because I think that you have to watch out for it becoming something that's seen as disposable. You know, a big issue in the furniture industry, like the fashion industry is fast furniture. This idea that cheap furniture is so cheap that you have it for a year or less than a year and you throw it
away afterwards. It generates a huge amount of waste. I think even more serious than the fabrication waste that we were talking about earlier. So as designers, we have an ability to influence that a bit. I think the fact that I'm making furniture out of paper doesn't mean that I want it to be used irresponsibly. And I hope the fact that it can be reused, that it can be used for multiple functions that it's easily assemble and disassemble
will encourage people to keep it longer. In theory, you want to look at that whole life cycle of the object. And really think it through carefully,
let's talk about commercializing this idea. How much are we talking about in terms of cost? Well,
the design. So one I think, I think the material is extremely affordable. The fabrication is fast with this digital cutting machine, it can happen almost anywhere. You know, you don't need a massive factory to do it. So it's something that in theory could be fabricated in many sites around the world. I think that a lot of sustainable design has what we call
the green premium. This idea that you can get a normal product or object service or you can get the sustainable version, which is 20% more expensive or two times more expensive. Sometimes it's really a lot and oftentimes what you're getting in return for paying that premium is intangible. But it's because I selected the most sustainable material that I could find it's actually more affordable. Wonderful. Wow,
that's exciting. And also on top of that extra bit of sustainability that's added to it isn't invisible anymore, right? You can see it, it's tangible, you can touch it and feel it interact with it. That's also really exciting for a sustainable product is you can kind of physically experience that sustainability. I think that going forward thinking projective about sy architecture in the future, that's what we want for architecture as well. That's what we want for our built environment. Is that
sustainable building is the most affordable building right. It's a no brainer that you want to do the sustainable building. It makes business sense as well. And not only that, but it's this wonderful experience where you can touch this building and say, wow, this is sustainable. This is from a responsible source. It's a passive design. I can feel it and I have this enjoyment of the object because it is sustainable actually. And
Peter you are not alone in this sustainable furniture game. There are those who are making furniture out of discarded chopsticks or sofas, made of discarded clothes or a cabinet made of scrap timber and so on. So as an architect and also sustainability advocate, how do you see the future of furniture evolving? I
think that the real future trend for sustainable furniture is in terms of transparency in supply chain so that you buy a furniture and like a piece of furniture and like a piece of clothing or an article of clothing, there's a tag on it and that tag allows you to understand where it was made, what it's made from? What's the carbon footprint of those materials? You know how much transport was required to bring it to where you are? I think that that is an increasing trend with a
lot of building materials. I think in the eu environmental product declarations are now required for public procurement at least. So there's regulatory pressure in certain parts of the world for this to happen. I think consumers are also really interested in this as well. What is this time bringing to my house and what has it done to the world to reach me? So where
are we in the process right now? Are we the baby step phase or,
you know, I think that we've just passed through a baby step phases and I think that we're going to be taking big steps soon from a personal standpoint. When I was working on this furniture, I wanted to know what's the carbon footprint of the material that I'm getting. And when I was first starting, it was quite hard to find materials where there was declared numbers for carbon
footprint for the environmental product declaration. But as I've been working on this for four years, it will be five years soon. That information is becoming increasingly available. There's also really interesting developments like software that now allows us to create our own environmental product declarations for our products, right? Like analysis software that almost anyone can use and it allows you to declare I made this furniture. But look, this is
third party verified. This is the carbon footprint of this design that I made. So just like a few things like that, I think really grease the wheel and hopefully has a snowball
effect. Any other cool alternative materials that you see?
So, OK, folded paper, great, very sustainable. Uh I have a colleague, Carlos Bon at SUTD who creates designs out of 3D printed, recycled plastic, even including ocean plastic, amazing work and really cool sustainability concept. We also have a group at SUTD that works with textiles which are custom fabricated textiles that can be knitted into any form or configuration and strengthened in specific ways.
And this is really materially efficient because you can have this very thin membrane that you strengthen in very strategic points that can create enclosures or furniture or artwork. So those are two areas that I think are really important on the horizon as well for sustainable furniture and sustainable design, 3d printing with recycled materials and digital textiles as well.
Yeah, fascinating stuff. Sounds very promising, Peter. Thank you so much for coming in. Shedding light on this very innovative world of sustainable furniture design.
Thanks so much for inviting me. It's been a great pleasure.
Special thanks to my guest, Peter and to our listeners. We hope you enjoyed this episode. The team behind this podcast is Tiffany Sn Joanne Chan and Christina Robert. Till next week, I'm Julie Yu signing off.