This newly-opened café in India is proving that cardboard is not just for boxing up your possessions on moving day.
The “Cardboard Café” is a restaurant in Mumbai that is made entirely out of corrugated cardboard. Except for the kitchen area, everything in the café from the tables and walls to the light fixtures and menu holders are made out of recyclable cardboard.
In total, the café is made out of 40,000 square feet of cardboard.
Since cardboard naturally consists of about 50% air, the material is lightweight, durable, inexpensive, and exceptional at absorbing sound, which makes it ideal for busy restaurant atmospheres.
The tabletops, on the other hand, were treated with wax to make them resistant to spills and stains.
The café was designed by Nuru Karim, the founder of the Indian architectural firm Nudes.
It only took the architects a total of 7 months to design and build the café – 3 months for planning and 4 months for construction.
The team spent an extensive amount of time testing the durability, flexibility, moisture resistance, and temperature adaption of the material.
In addition to the café being made out of sustainable materials, they also specialize in serving organic and locally-sourced meals.
Karim says he created the restaurant as a means of illustrating the versatility of cardboard so it can be taken more seriously as a structural material.