Toby Horrocks loves cardboard. And why wouldn’t he? It is a material that is lightweight yet robust, it grows stronger through lamination or folding and it can be printed onto, CNC knife cut or die-cut. Cardboard is often already composed of post-consumer waste and remains, in principle, infinitely recyclable.
While Toby has been working in architecture and design for many years, the story of his work with cardboard began in earnest three years ago when he moved into an inner-city apartment. He had no furniture, “I mean, absolutely no furniture,” so he set about designing a stackable “box” that could be a seat, a table and storage. Like any designer worth his salt, he questioned the essence of the form and as he played, he found that stretching or compressing the angles produced an interesting, sculptural volume. Initially the computer-modelled design was intended to be made from plywood, but in the process he recognized the potential to unfold the desired form and make it from one scored piece of cardboard. A shape composed of two parallelograms and two arrowheads, Freefold becomes a 2:1 box, made from sixteen-millimetre-thick sheet, which fits together without glue like a jigsaw. The genius of the form is in the way the introduced angles create sculptural undulations in the front and the rear of a stack of modules without affecting stability. The product was launched at State of Design in 2008, generating positive publicity for Toby and a series of one-off commissions.
Toby continues to refine his designs, hoping to simplify further, improve strength and bring down the price to more closely align with the perceived market value. Flatform is the latest module within the Freefold Furniture range. Made from 1.8-millimetre card, the flat shape becomes a sharp-edged shelf with faceted base that is held to the wall by a concealed, pressed cardboard angle. The pattern can be die-cut, which significantly reduces production costs. While the design is appealing for residential environments, his target market is retail, where surfaces and fittings turn over in rapid succession. Flatform is light, fast to install and easy to transport and can be put out with the recycling at the end of its life.
Currently working on a walk-in Designex stand, a string of shop interiors in Germany and a retail bike stand, Toby suffers from the fortunate affliction of having more ideas than time. There are possibilities for evolving his architectural practice but at the moment he is enjoying his organic journey in card. “I want to throw all of my energy into Freefold right now because I think it’s so exciting.”
Source
Product News
Published online: 28 Sep 2011
Words:
Judith Abell
Issue
Houses, August 2011