In cooperation with the artist Markus Heinsdorff, we set up the Paper Box House at the GAD Giudecca Art District in Venice, Italy, for the GAD exhibition on the occasion of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021 under the title “The Space We Live In.”

As his central installation, a walk-in Paper Box House made of recycled cardboard was created in an old shipyard hall on Giudecca. The furnishings — bed, shelf, table, and stool — consist of stacked vegetable and fruit boxes, like those discarded daily in greengrocers’ shops all over the world. From the perspective of the lowcostlab and those involved, this is a great waste, as the boxes are made from a highly durable, very strong multi-layer cardboard, which allows for a wide variety of uses even after their single use for transporting produce — something impressively demonstrated by the installation.

The cardboard used for the house has a honeycomb structure and can now be made with up to 80% recycled fibers, making it a high-tech material in its own right. It is highly versatile, and due to its construction, even large surfaces can be built free of warping and with structural stability. The transport box served as the model for the Paper Box House. Using a CAD model, the 16 individual modules were cut with a CNC cutter, then hand-folded and glued with wood glue into their final box shape, some with diagonal bracing. For assembly and production within a few days, the elements were bolted together in a way that allowed them to be dismantled and transported.

Overall dimensions: height 4.45 m, depth 4.50 m, width 3.84 m, cardboard thickness 10 mm, and maximum cardboard lengths up to 2.6 m. The result is both an artwork and a "material recycling and architectural vision" with an impressive spatial experience on the theme "Building with Waste – Building with Resources."

The project aims to show that with recycling or with materials considered waste in many parts of the world, it is possible to build simple yet well-designed spaces — or even entire houses. The need is urgent: currently, over 80 million people worldwide are homeless, and more than one billion live in inadequate housing.

Material: honeycomb cardboard, 10 mm metric screws with washers and nuts, wood glue

Photo: © Patrik Graf, Markus Heinsdorff