Paper and extreme heat are never a good combination. Yet the following eight designers have made it work, creating lamps that are light, inexpensive and less wasteful than traditional versions.
Cardboard design has popped up (so to speak) quite a bit recently, in everything from chairs to architecture. Lamps are a less intuitive match (the whole “highly flammable” thing), but the eight designs below show that cardboard and flame can work together. Check them out.
These lamps from Portuguese design studio Vicara arrive in a flat cardboard box — then, they fan open to create a 3D shape.
Pamio Design has a series of cardboard lamps that are made by laser-cutting each layer and gluing the profiles together.
Greypants has a whole series of cardboard lamps made from scraps. You can buy them too.
With the inclusion of the bright orange frame, Nico Goebel’s Zizäg Grandma lamp looks like a big barn on stilts.
No eggs were harmed in the making of the Egg of Columbus lamp, created from thick, egg carton-like material by designer Valentina Carretta for Seletti.
These paper lamps by Canadian design team Molo aren’t exactly cardboard, but they’re an interesting use for paper — Molo actually works exclusively with accordion-style crepe, used to build everything from wall dividers to furniture.
Another lamp by Formfjord is actually made from the packaging it arrives in. Open it up, slide the box over the included cord and bulb, et voila.
Madebywho‘s clever pendant lamp arrives as a flat piece of 1mm cardboard — the buyer the folds it into position.
