Newspaper Wood

From wood to paper and back again, a versatile material by Mieke Meijer and Vij5 used in several products.

Presented at Object Rotterdam 2012, Newspaper Wood is a product developed by Dutch designer Mieke Meijer during her studies at Design Academy Einhoven in 2003. Using paper surplus to reverse the traditional production process from wood to paper, in Newspaper Wood, the layers of paper appear like lines of a wood grain or the rings of a tree and therefore resembles the aesthetic of real wood. The material can be cut, milled and sanded and generally treated like any other type of wood.

NewspaperWood does not aim to be a large scale alternative to wood, nor to use all paper waste into a new material. "Upcycling" is the main concept of the project, transforming a material surplus into something more valuable.

Although printing techniques for newspapers are nowadays efficient enough to reduce the test prints and first unusable newspapers to a minimum, there is still considerable surplus available. Simultaneously, Maijer and Vij5 use days-old newspapers. The paper is glued using a solvent and plasticizers-free glue.

The material can then be used on a variety of scales and projects, from Greetje van Tiem's From A to Z desk to Floris Hovers' Press to open cabinet.

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Newspaper Wood

From wood to paper and back again, a versatile material by Mieke Meijer and Vij5 used in several products.

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