DuraPulp = A World Without Plastic

Photos courtesy of Södra

DuraPulp = A World Without Plastic

Plastic has met its match in DuraPulp

When an engineering student looking for work knocked on the door of one of Sweden’s best-known architect and design firms, Claesson Koivisto Rune, little did he know that he was on the verge of discovering a whole new world for pulp. Joakim Nygren has an MSc in machine design, so when one of the partners threw an egg carton onto the table and challenged him to make a chair from it, Nygren’s reply was “Sure, I can do that.”

In truth, Nygren didn’t have a clue. He knew that paper was not an immediate choice for furniture designers for the obvious reason that it’s too fragile. What he didn’t know was that the Swedish research firm Innventia had taken on the challenge of eliminating the fragility of cellulose back in 2004, by mixing woodpulp with 25% polylactic acid or PLA, a corn-based polymer. It found that when the mix was heated to 167˚C, the plastic encapsulated the paper fibres. The result was a material with all the properties of ordinary paper but with a key difference – it could cope with large changes in weight and humidity: Just a couple of millimetres thickness had the strength of wood or hard plastic, even steel – its inventors were just looking for a chance to prove it.

Nygren still had contacts at Innventia from his student days, so he approached them with his chair challenge. They in turn contacted Europe’s largest market pulp producer, Södra Cell. Working in the mature pulp markets of Western Europe, Södra is more than keen to seek out new applications and markets for its products. Some 18 months and a lot of testing later, the team realised they had a material which was not affected by temperature fluctuations and air humidity. Södra called the new composite DuraPulp.

Back at the design firm, they decided it would be appropriate to make a child’s chair with the new material since it has a life expectancy of 3-4 years after which it is completely biodegradable. As well as being biodegradable, they came up with a design which is stackable, inexpensive to produce and lightweight (imagine how easy the vacuuming would be, say its inventors, if you could lift all the furniture with one hand, not to mention the savings on transportation and emission levels if loads were cut by 80%). Nothing has been included which could compromise recyclability – no glue, tape, or staples. “I dare you to find a more eco friendly chair. The pulp used is classified for food substances,” Nygren says. “I wouldn’t eat it, but you can eat off it. It’s completely safe.”

“Before this project started, we admitted to ourselves that if we could make a chair from DuraPulp, we could do almost anything,” Nygren explains. “The chair is done. Now it’s time for almost anything, the only question is what next – car engines, disaster relief housing, playhouses or pallets?”

Wästberg
Launched in 2008, Wästberg lamps are now sold globally and have been honoured with more than 30 awards for design excellence, including 7 Good. Design Awards, 4 red dot awards, Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany and an Elle Interior Design Prize. Wästberg is based in Helsingborg, Skåne, the southernmost part of Sweden.

Södra
Södra is a Swedish group with broad forestry operations and is a leading producer of pulp, wood products and bioenergy. The company, which is owned by 51,000 forest owners in southern Sweden, has 4,000 employees and sales of SEK 17 billion.

Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune was founded in Stockholm in 1995 by Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune. Starting out as an architectural office they soon became multi-disciplinary, prioritizing architecture and design equally.

Photos courtesy of Södra