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Bloxes Cardboard Modular Building Blocks
Posted by Gina Trapani at 10:07 AM on March 8, 2008
If you love Legos, but you want adult-sized, eco-friendly ones that can build things like platforms and office dividers, you'll love Bloxes. Put together these interlocking cardboard blocks any which way to create furniture strong enough for regular-sized humans to stand and sit on.
Bloxes can connect with each other on all six sides, so you can use them to build walls, benches, tables, tunnels—whatever you can think of. And because the varied surface and complex internal structure helps dampen sound, they're great for managing acoustics in offices, studios and other places.After the jump, check out some photos of Bloxes in action. Photo by Scott Robbin.
An individual Bloxes unit all folded up looks like this:
Here's how to put them together:
A Bloxes platform is big enough to stand on:
Here's a good-looking space divider built with Bloxes:
Photo by Scott Robbin.
Obviously Bloxes are heck-yeah nifty, but they do seem more practical used as workspace dividers versus a chair. (That can't be comfortable, can it?) They're not for outdoor use, and a pack of 20 costs $60, which could add up, because all these cool creations look like they use several dozen 20-packs.
Tags: office furniture | office supplies | stuff we like | top
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
mmbb
Posted 11:02 AM 8/3/08
Haha, this reminded me of The Simpsons episode (S18E15) where Bart and Lisa build a fort (castle?) in the back yard with boxes from A.S.S. (American Shipping Services).
mmbb
Gina Trapani
Posted 11:02 AM 8/3/08
Ok fine, screw productivity. I want to build myself a fort, too!
Gina Trapani
DerekH
Posted 11:02 AM 8/3/08
Screw the office divider, I wanna build myself a fort!
DerekH
HeartBurnKid
Posted 11:02 AM 8/3/08
This = very yes.
HeartBurnKid
ackthbbft
Posted 11:29 AM 8/3/08
WAYYYY too pricey, but kinda neat.
ackthbbft
Kered
Posted 11:57 AM 8/3/08
Damn this is some nerdy shit.
Kered
SaGR
Posted 11:57 AM 8/3/08
Very cool but pricey!
SaGR
ddouthitt
Posted 12:25 PM 8/3/08
Am I the only one who noticed that this company is (apparently) cofounded by Aza Raskin, the founder of Humanized (the people who created Enso) and the son of former Apple employee and user interface designer Jef Raskin?
Look towards the bottom of the web page in the fine print.
ddouthitt
Urza
Posted 12:25 PM 8/3/08
I think you're making these out to be smaller than they are. A quick count shows that the big wall creation (last photo in this article) is made up of about 80 Bloxes, which although alot, is nowhere near "several dozen 20-packs".
A Blox is 9.5" along each side.
Urza
pixelkid
Posted 12:25 PM 8/3/08
This is super cool! But I can't let the 'Legos' comment go, its just Lego plain and simple. There is no plural :p
pixelkid
ffejie
Posted 4:25 PM 8/3/08
I'm not sure why, but this reminds me of Menger Sponges.
[en.wikipedia.org]
I was always interested if this guy ever got his project built.
[world.std.com]
ffejie
GeorgiaBoot
Posted 5:55 PM 8/3/08
There is only one thing going on in my mind right now, Life size Star Destroyer may be possible...
And yes, Legos were my favorite item of choice to play with when I was younger!
GeorgiaBoot
Paul
Posted 8:20 PM 8/3/08
They are definitely cool, but I am not sure whether they are resilient or practical.
Cardboard is also...cardboard, so, while cool for a time, they may quickly become kind of mulchy, dirty, rank, etc.
Otherwise, the concept is awesome...so geometric, so dodecahedric, so genetic.
Peter J. Lupo Esq.
antiaging4geeks.com
Paul
MarieHuynh
Posted 8:20 PM 8/3/08
ahhhh! fort time!
MarieHuynh
holymogwai
Posted 2:49 AM 9/3/08
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if untreated, cardboard is where roaches lay their eggs.
holymogwai
chrishad95
Posted 3:52 AM 9/3/08
Nice. How long before we get an instructable that tells us how to make our own bloxes cutter/press? Then we can just make our own out of all the boxes that we encounter in our everyday existence.
chrishad95
Amalga
Posted 12:05 PM 9/3/08
The concept is pretty sweet. Granted, I can probably get the same effect just cutting cardboard to the exact measurements I need rather than relying on their static units. It'd probably cost me much less, too.
Still, if those individual triangles can be used to store little trinkets, I'd pay for a couple of those boxes. That, or make larger versions.
Amalga
Johnay
Posted 1:28 PM 10/3/08
That and spiders, holymogwai.
Johnay
drsmith
Posted 3:38 PM 10/3/08
Pricey is right. It can't cost more than $5 to punch out 20 of these things. I'll pass until the price is more to my liking.
For reference, I just bought 4 bankers boxes for file storage. Cost: $12. There's a lot less cardboard and manufacturing effort in one blox than there is in a banker's box.
drsmith
Myron
Posted 3:34 AM 11/3/08
Fire!
Myron
Fiddydos
Posted 5:01 AM 11/3/08
Make them out of plastic corrugated cardboard analog - no moisture/dirt/mulch issues.
The new version of concrete block and wood plank shelving?
Fiddydos
kftgr
Posted 5:45 AM 11/3/08
I counted 96 bloxes in the last wall divider pic. It's all resting on six cube edges. Wonder how much weight they can take before warping.
kftgr
coswine
Posted 5:45 AM 11/3/08
Could you cover these in something to make them more durable/less attractive to roaches and mice? Lacquer?
coswine
coswine
Posted 5:45 AM 11/3/08
Nice idea, but a few hundred dollars for a cardboard wall?
coswine
tommy19
Posted 5:45 AM 11/3/08
These things look awesome. Although I have to admit that the price tag of $3 a piece is a little too steep for me. And I'm sure that a template for these things will be put out on the web in no time. In which case I'd love to take it and make some of my own, maybe double the size though. They just seem too small to be viable building materials.
As for the photos; the chair looks extremely uncomfortable and the wall divider looks VERY unstable. But otherwise very cool.
tommy19
Chuuuck
Posted 5:45 AM 11/3/08
@ffejie:
actually, she did:
The Business Card Menger Sponge
by Dr Jeannine Mosely
Presented by The Institute For Figuring and Machine Project
This exhibition is curated by IFF director Margaret Wertheim
Chuuuck
samuraispy
Posted 6:30 AM 11/3/08
Sweet! I keep seeing these here at SXSW but I had no idea what they were!
samuraispy
Narsil
Posted 10:40 AM 11/3/08
It's a cool concept, but what boggles me is that I thought stuff was made out of cardboard to be cheaper. Why would I buy this when a comfy chair is going to cost me much less? I mean, it looks like you're eve doing the folding for them? $3 a sheet when all they do is use a press to cut cardboard? I think not.
On the flip side, their profit margins must be *amazing*. That's how you run a business. Make something trendy-looking out of cardboard, and you can charge as much as you want for it.
Narsil
dauclair951
Posted 6:36 AM 19/3/08
The wall partition is very neat, but what if it falls over? I agree that the Bloxes are too expensive.
Theses certainly redefine the meaning of modular buildings
dauclair951