Logistics issues force on-the-fly cardboard furniture project by Zaventem Ateliers

In Mexico, design collective Zaventem Ateliers showed that necessity is truly the mother of invention when customs delays meant it had to recreate most of its Unique Design X exhibition furniture collection from cardboard.

Based in Belgium, the collective of eight design studios had to produce 35 furniture items from three square meters of cardboard. It took a 17-hour furniture-recreating marathon, and was a surprise conversation starter at the event.

“We worked, barely speaking or drinking, and then we set up everything and created the same scenography that we planned,” Zaventem Ateliers founder Lionel Jadot told dezeen. “The result was quite satisfying. The funny thing was that people passing by didn’t understand what we were doing until the next day when we opened. We had nothing to sell. We were just there to show models of our pieces, to show the volume, and in the end, the absence of our pieces rounded the public’s astonishing curiosity.”