Recycle design, upcycle design and sustainable design have the same goal of adding less waste on landfills. And here on upcycleDZINE you can find plenty of fascinating examples of upcycle design. Actually there are more than 500 designs to be found. Every design shows an original product. But there’s one aspect that hasn’t been featured and that’s packaging.
I don’t mean paper rapped around a box to send the product, no I mean the actual box for the product. Usually designers pay a lot of attention to the product. But the packaging box is something that is mostly taken for granted. Well it gets attention in the way it looks, but not in the way it functions. What do I mean? Wouldn’t it be great if a product could do without a box or other packaging? Or even better, if it was in some sort of way integrated into the designed product.
Well have a look at a piece of upcycle design I stumbled upon a few weeks ago that needs no box, only paper to wrap it in to be shipped.

Cardboard tubing as packaging and stylish lamp

The creation is called R16, a pendant lamp by Dutch product design studio Waarmakers. The company is based in Amsterdam and is founded by Simon Akkaya and Maarten Heijltjes. They met and developed their ideas on design while studying Industrial Design at the Delft University of Technology. On their website it states that they are curious and critical, searching for different approaches, new combinations and new standards. “We experiment, we test, we discuss, we criticise. And, we try to create narratives that suggest and imply far more than a physical form.”

This approach has led to R16, radius 16 mm, a LED tube light fixture made out of cardboard tubing. Cardboard is a highly underrated material that has some pretty nice characteristics. For instance, it’s usually made out of recycled paper, it’s soft to the touch and last but not least, it’s very strong and sturdy.
Cardboard tubing is used for mailing, shipping, posters and storage. And now we can add another function and that’s lighting. To be more precise, in this upcycle design piece it functions both as packaging box and stylish pendant lamp. Just look at how ingenious this box houses all necessary parts of the lamp.
To use the full potential of a cardboard tube they applied laser cuts to it. Thereby preserving the integrity of form and material and making it possible to turn the cardboard tube into a lamp. According to Simon and Maarten R16 pays homage to this beautiful and versatile material.


Waarmakers:

“Our designs are manifestations of a belief that everything can be reimagined and redesigned for a more sustainable future. Each new design should be a test of convention, and a step in a better direction.”

Photos & video © Waarmakers

I don’t know about you, but R16 is to me a very intriguing and stunning piece of upcycle design. It’s a minimalist light source, efficient, without waste and fun to put together.

Design by Waarmakers | Facebook