Adventures in Marketing: Ikea Literally Creates Furniture Out of Flat-Pack Cardboard

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, January 24, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Ikea, the Swedish furnishings chain that's been opening apartments in Paris Metro stations and quarantining off male shoppers, the company that's so revolutionary that it's actually been copied, has cut the bull and gone back to its bread and butter: flat-pack furniture. Its newest ad campaign, promoting its 40 percent off sale, literally reveals just that: furniture created from cardboard flat-pack furniture boxes. The campaign was devised by Italian firm Auge and is a real mind-bender, obviously.

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Globe Trotting: Shigeru Ban Tapped to Design Massive Cardboard Cathedral

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, August 30, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Cardboard and earthquake-relief master Shigeru Ban has taken a break from selling off $11.5M NYC penthouses and is in the process of designing and building a temporary replacement for an 1864 Anglican cathedral that was demolished in the massive earthquake that struck New Zealand in February. The modernist architect plans to use 86 heavy-duty cardboard tubes, each weighing 1,100 pounds, to construct the roof; other components include a stained-glass window and a foundation made from shipping containers. When all is said and done, the 80-foot-tall church, aptly located in the town of Christchurch, will hold 700 people and cost $3.5M to build. However, Ban's doing the project pro bono; as he told The Telegraph, "a cardboard structure will stay in the minds of people forever—it is loved by them."

· Hermes Booth in Milan Uses Starchitect-Approved Cardboard [Curbed National]
· A Look at Shigeru Ban's Minimalist Shelter for Earthquake Victims [Curbed National]
· Shigeru Ban's Metal Shutter House Penthouse Finally Sells for $11.455M [Curbed NY]
· New Christchurch cathedral to be built out of cardboard [The Telegraph via Gizmodo]

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