Designer WooJai Lee has invented a whole new range of bricks and furniture that is made out of recycled paper. Although Lee wasn’t fond of nature, seeing the lush green nature around him while growing up in New Zealand unknowingly influenced him. He moved to the Netherlands to pursue his Bachelor’s degree from the Design Academy Eindhoven. For his final year, in 2016, Lee worked on the PaperBricks project which he had been practicing at his design studio in Eindhoven. Here is the detail on the project by SURFACES REPORTER (SR).
The PaperBricks project is an exploration of how recycled paper can be further used in a more sustainable way. Paper is widely used, and therefore one of the leading discarded materials in the world after plastic. Although paper can be recycled, it cannot be indefinitely done as with every cycle; its fibre grows smaller, thereby degrading its quality. To give a new sustainable and long-lasting life to recycled newspapers, Lee decided to work on the PaperBricks project.
Made of recycled newspapers, PaperBricks are strong bricks that have a stone-like marbling aesthetic of a construction material. Newspapers are soaked in water to create newspaper pulp. The pulp is then mixed with glue/adhesive to create a mixture that can be poured into a mould and then shaped into bricks. PaperBricks are dried and treated for the final form. The sturdy bricks have the warmth and softness of paper as well. According to Lee, Paper can be soft and hard, rough and smooth, systematic and irregular – all of which is seen in his PaperBricks project.
To demonstrate how PaperBricks can be used constructively, Lee launched the PaperBricks_Pallet series. Comprising two coffee tables and a bench, the PaperBricks_Pallet series highlights the soft surfaces of the rigid shapes in contrast to the natural rough forms. Moreover, going one step ahead to explore the contrasting characteristics of a material, Lee introduced the PaperBricks_Sculpt series as well.
About the designer
WooJai Lee is a Korean-New Zealander designer/artist who was based in The Netherlands until recently moving to Melbourne, Australia. His practice stretches from furniture and interior elements to sculptural paintings. They all involve working with different materials, experimenting and exploring their hidden potentials. Material tactility is what he prioritises in his work, where the qualities of the material are accentuated to tell their stories. He works in both constructional and sculptural ways, mixing the qualities of the two to create a unique style of works. WooJai’s main focus of work involves working with recycled newspapers to create furniture and interior elements with importance to sustainability, which he is now developing further into sculptural pieces with emotional spatial qualities.
Image credits: Studio Woojai