Dutch designer Dik Scheepers mixed discarded paper with cement to cast this series of furniture.
The material is combined with timber to create a table, chair, stool, desk and two cabinets.
Scheepers presents the Unpølished project as part of an exhibition called Toegepast 16 at Z33 gallery in Hasselt until 5 February 2012.
See past exhibitions at Z33 on Dezeen here.
Here's some more information from the designer:
UnPølished
During one of my travels over the internet I came across the material papercrete. I became interested because it seemed so simple to make yourself. In essence you only need paper and cement, mix it together and you have your own made material.
Wanting to learn more about it I was surprised to find that the materials is already used a lot, but it seemed to me that everyone did the same thing, making blocks and building houses out of them. I wanted to know what I could do with the material, so I started up to work with it to get to know the material.
Papercrete is still an experimental material and is mostly made from discarded paper. It is low cost, versatile, light weight, but it has bad pouring conditions and takes a very long time to dry. The material feels soft, has a very nice tactility and different kind of papers provide different character.
For toegepast 16 at z33 I tested and searched for my own recipe and in combination with whitewood I made these experimental furniture collection.
this really sucks big time
i love the idea. concrete furniture has been on my mind for a very long time.Love the contrast btwn roughness of the material and supposedly soft object. I do think it can be developed heaps further but.
The above is a thoroughly unconstructive and useless comment. Care to elaborate? What about it suks?
I, for one, am quite interested in the experimentation process that went into creating a material usable for furniture. Nice work!
" I was surprised to find that the materials is already used a lot, but it seemed to me that everyone did the same thing, making blocks and building houses out of them."
guess why; it's just not suitable for most other fields, one of them being furnitureproduction.
I can't agree with you because Dezeen shows quite a few examples in which concrete was used to make interesting furniture projects.
But this, on the other hand, is not one of them. At least the first pic. The chair and table look more decent.
I love the details in this work, It's concrete but it invite's you to sit down in so many ways. Well done Dik!