Exhibition space formed by corrugated cardboards
Since the exhibition of "Long Life Design: Thinking and Practicing" has been held in the OCT Art & Design Gallery in Shenzhen (exhibition space designed by Studio 10) and Pearl Art Museum in Shanghai (exhibition space designed by Kooo Architects), curator Mr. Zuo Jing has been carrying out practices and research on sustainable design, hoping to present an exhibition with the concept of "Zero Waste". Our team has also been exploring sustainability in design practices. It was in such a context that our cooperation was made possible. This time, we designed the setting for "Back to the Future: Breaking the Time Barrier" exhibition co-curated by Zuo Jing by simply using cardboards.
Recyclable Exhibition
It is a general situation that much more attention is paid to the work before exhibition, rather than what happens afterwards. Exhibition space is usually temporary with a short life-cycle, and the exhibition installation period between opening and dismantling is also extremely short. For these reasons, a rapid, low-cost common method, i.e. the use of light steel keels, gypsum boards and latex paint (as well as other similar materials), is frequently adopted for the construction of exhibition setting. However, at the time of dismantling, the construction can only be demolished completely, resulting in a large amount of garbage and much cleaning work.
Rapid Construction and Recycle
- Rapid Production and Installation Process by Non-professionals Due to the low density of cardboard, it takes a shorter time for CNC cutting and processing, compared with other conventional building materials. All the 320 pieces of raw cardboards used for the exhibition were processed into 2,566 cardboard components in less than two days. Finally, 42 vertical exhibition modules with a size of 1.2m*2.4m*0.6m and 22 stand exhibition modules were assembled within only two days by six or seven people on site. Such an efficient construction process benefits from not only the lightness of cardboard material, but also the non-necessity of using any assembly tools. Moreover, ordinary people can also take over the work of the professional constructors to assemble the cardboards with bare hands. It also provides great convenience for the following activities of material recycle and reuse.
- Highly Recyclable
The used corrugated cardboards will be disassembled and then reassembled and installed in different places serving the following exhibitions curated by Mr. Zuo Jing. On the other hand, these walls and stands made from corrugated cardboards can also be taken by people who are interested in after the exhibition concludes. Even after losing all these functions, discarded corrugated cardboards can still be recycled and reused up to 96%.
Using cardboards to create an exhibition space, the project tries to avoid construction waste during temporary exhibition program. Highly recyclable corrugated cardboards are assembled with mortise and tenon structures to form walls and stands for the exhibition. Environmentally speaking, it satisfies the requirements of "reduce, reuse and recycle", and the construction of the exhibition space itself has become one part of the exhibits.
