MetaEfficient Reviews » Furniture

Bloxes: Modular Cardboard Furniture

Justin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:42:02 +0000

Cardboard can be incorporated in modern design pieces — check out this impressive gallery of cardboard furniture. Bloxes (shown above) are the latest option in cardboard furniture. The corrugated cardboard puzzle pieces lock together to form sturdy shapes such as chairs, walls, and play forts.

The creator of Bloxes, Aza Raskin, explains what they are:

Essentially 3D cardboard legos that ship flat, and fold up in modular building blocks that are strong enough to stand on. While they aren’t tech per se, we use them for building tables, walls, cubicles, and desks. Both Google and Mozilla have expressed interest in using them in their offices. So, this may well be the new thing in terms of agile office-space deployment. Don’t like where a wall is? Just move it! Don’t like the way it looks? Just rebuild it! They are cheaper than cubicles, and much more fun.

The 6-sided, 9.5 inch-square shapes are designed with CAD software and made in Chicago. Bloxes sells each case of 20 brown or white squares for $60, enough to build a form 36 inches by 45 inches.

Link: Bloxes

75% More Efficient: Blue Ridge Parkway Destintation Center The new Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center has just...
A Closer Look At The [re]Drive I noted the release of the [re]Drive last month...
Efficient Green Hard Drive Released A company called Fabrik has released an external hard...

Efficient Materials: Tube+9 Lounge Chair

Justin — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 21:10:03 +0000

The Tube+9 Lounge chair was designed with the user, environment, and budget in mind while maintaining a modern of the times feel and appearance. This chair achieves this by using materials that are either recycled or recyclable. The frame is constructed from a 3′x4′ sheet of plywood cut into 1/8″ strips, laminated and formed from one single formwork for both the back and legs to minimize material waste.

The lamination process allows the texture of the plywood section to be revealed in addition to creating a laminated appearance from all viewing angles. The seat is made from 9 rigid cardboard tubes found in many packaging and manufacturing plants that use cellophane wrap wrapping. All of the tubes are wraped in a recycled or recyclable fabric for comfortable sitting and capped with aluminum rings to finish the edges.

The breakdown of materials is:
3′x4′ plywood = 100% recyclable = $15
9 cardboard tubes = 100% recyclable = free
18 aluminum rings = 100% recyclable = $30
3yds. fabric = 100% recyclable = $45

100% recyclable/recycled = $90 = a lounge chair that meets the user’s, environment’s and budget’s needs.

Via: Yanko Design

Efficient Green Hard Drive Released A company called Fabrik has released an external hard...
Efficient: HP Reduces Laptop Packaging By 97% Recently, HP announced that its DV6929 laptop will be...
A Closer Look At The [re]Drive I noted the release of the [re]Drive last month...

Bamboo Chest

Justin — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 19:24:48 +0000

This chest, by Ecodesignz, is made out of strips of bamboo, and finished with a clear, low-glass lacquer. The bamboo laminate is made with E-1 glue, which meets tough European standards for outgassing. Ecodesignz furniture is virtually formaldehyde-free.

Available for $245 from Ecodesignz.

ASUS Introduces Bamboo-Cased Computers Bamboo is an ideal material to fashion into gadgets...
The Best Chest Freezers 2009 When researching energy efficient appliances, we often turn to...
Efficient: Bamboo Toys The Contina line by Hape International is said to...

Kirei Mod Coffee Table

Justin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 09:17:41 +0000

This coffee table is made out of Kirei board, which is a material made out of the recycled stalks of the Sorghum plant. Usually these stalks are thrown away after the Sorghum cereal is harvested, but in this case, they are reclaimed, and then bonded into a sheet using formaldehyde-free adhesives.

(more…)

No related posts.

Rock It Chair by Offi

Justin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 08:59:03 +0000

This modern rocking chair is built of out of sustainable, non-toxic mateirals (Baltic birch veneer and non-toxic painted wood). It’s part of the new “Built-By-Me” collection from OFFI, and it’s designed by Jennifer Carpenter. Available from Velocity for $109.

Icebreaker: Efficient Wool T-Shirts For Warm Weather Icebreaker, a New Zealand company, is proving that wool...
Innovative Tower To Feature Atrium Of Wind Turbines The “Clean Technology Tower” is a highly efficient building...
Hand-Crafted Recreational Vehicles Tonke Campers are hand-built RVs that are now being...

A Guide to Buying Non-Toxic Furniture

Justin — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 23:03:15 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great to sit in a chair and breath easily, knowing you are not inhaling chemicals like
“perfluorooctane sulfonate”. Sustain Lane has a short guide to help you to know what to look for when shopping for furniture. Here’s a summary: avoid PVC, other plastics, high-emitting particleboard, polyurethane foam and synthethic fibers for upholstery, toxic finishes and glues.

The chair seen here is a Prasada Club Chair from EL Furniture. You can read about how it is constructed with non-toxic materials here.

Finding Inexpensive Non-Toxic Bedding We spend about one third of our lives in...
A MetaEfficient Men’s Winter Outfit For 2010: Continued I neglected to mention a few more items for...

Affordable & Sustainable: Seagrass Chair

Justin — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:30:47 +0000

This low-profile chair is handwoven by Indonesian artisans out of renewable, fast-growing seagrass and includes a tufted cushion with an unbleached cotton blend cover. The frame is made of locally harvested Mango Wood with a clea, water-based lacquer finish. Available for $199 from Hanson Products

Renewable: Sunglasses Made With Castor Bean Oil The frames of these sunglasses (Dragon Experience Eco) are...
Four Efficient Holiday Stockings Reusing the stocking you stored away last year’s the...

Modern Rattan Lounge Chair

Justin — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 08:31:23 +0000

This “donut chair” is an example of modern wicker design. The dark two tone color comes for the natural color of the rattan. It has a washable cotton cushion.

Rattan furniture is durable, smooth to the touch and made from plants that grow quickly and replenish easily.

Available from Surroundings for $295 each.

They also have this rattan Tika Armchair:

The Most Efficient Humidifier: Areca Palm It’s important to keep indoor humidity at an optimum...
AeroGarden: Easy, Efficient Indoor Gardening In 2004, MetaEfficient.com pre-reviewed the AeroGrow aeroponics growing system....

Bent Ply Chairs

Justin — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 22:42:14 +0000

Even retail stores sometimes offer efficient bent plywood furniture, like Hold Everything which sells this “Bent Ply” chair. You may need to go to their site and zoom in to get a good look at the wood grain.

Available in four different stains for $88 (including shipping) from Hold Everything.

This attractive “Kinetic Santa Catarina” chair (below) is available from HomeClick for $98.

Announcing: LED Light Reviews We’re launching a new site called LED Light Reviews!...
A Portable Kinetic Motion Charger A company called M2E Power has announced plans today...

Bent Plywood Overlap Tray by Offi

Justin — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 21:43:15 +0000

Bent plywood is energy efficient in its construction. Also, less wood is wasted because the wood is not milled but molded instead. This overlap tray by Offi is molded plywood with a Baltic birch veneer, and has a cork covered area for your cup of coffee. Read more about Offi here.

Available from Amazon for $99.

Top Mountain Bike LED Lights Under $300 LED systems are natural choice for mountain bikers given...
Energy Efficient iPod Speakers: The Vers 2X I’ve been testing the Vers 2x iPod speaker system....
Efficient: Books That Explain Train Travel In North America Train travel is one of the most efficient forms...