Bloxes: flat-pack cardboard cubes make sound-dampening walls, shelves, dividers, tables, etc
Bloxes are flat-pack die-cut cardboard 3D cubes that snap together to make super-strong, lightweight, infinitely configurable dividers, shelves, tables -- and they're also sound-dampeners. They come in multiple colors and look like they can be put together by kids, too. Link
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Cool, stuff. Lots of neat pictures and designs, but they don't seem so straightforward and simple--plus, it's 60 bucks for a case of twenty.
FIrst impression: COOL!
Second impression: doesn't seem to be from recycled stock.
Third impression: silverfish anyone??
My first impression was also "cool". My second impression was "dust collectors".
They look cool, but what I wanna know is how many of those blocks it takes to build things. At $60 for 20, you could be talking hundreds of bucks for a set of cardboard shelves.
From their website:
"How are they assembled?
It's relatively simple. Grab some friends, some beer, and some pizza"
Not so sure about that. Might be best to reserve the beer until after you're done.
Jef Raskin invented Bloxus. He was also the creator of the Macintosh project at Apple. In 1993 or so, he gave me a bunch of unfolded bloxus (plus an assembled one to guide me). They are really cool. Jef also wrote a column for the print edition of bOING bOING under a pen name. He was a brilliant man and I miss him.
First impression: Fire hazard
You could use these to build a large Space Invader or Mario character. That would be pretty cool.
These look and sound very cool, until I saw the price for them, admittedly the first thing I thought of was its just a piece of cardboard cut into a shape with holes in the middle and some scoring to guide the folding... I then thought I could make the same thing... granted I probably can't do as good as this, but are there any cc/open source variations which could be printed out and hand cut? THAT would rock. Im all for people making premade cuts for $$, but if there is an alternative thats cc/open source/pd thats similar, that I could do myself at home with cardboard I have lying around... that would be better.
I suppose you could hand weld and grind a die and build a hydraulic press, but the metals in average reach wouldn't stay sharp or take a good enough edge for long runs.
Better to set up a sweat shop. Immigrant slaves, unpapered and pliable, some razor knives and old boxes, aluminum templates and whips. Children have small, deft hands, suitable for the cut-out details and perhaps polishing the insides of shell casings if you have a side business.....
Very interesting, but how much recycled content is there? I'm hoping there is a lot, otherwise, why are we making furniture out of paper?
I'm not getting you down, am I? I do have this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.....
Maybe you should see Dr Susan Calvin for a check up Takuan.
http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Text/RobotLove2.mp3
Oh, $60 for a bunch of cardboard! Yes, that's totally something I need to spend my free money on. Cardboard legos.
Yes, fire hazard. I doubt any commercial establishment would be allowed to use such a thing.
Office supply stores are filled with stacks of cardboard and other combustibles.
use something like this
http://www.natfire.com/products.html
These were indeed invented by Jef Raskin. Around 1971 I was attending UCSD where Jef taught. My art class was invited to explore a 3-d maze built by Jef out of these Blox, complete with tunnels you could crawl thru and Jef hiding inside! As it happened I was the one who discovered his hideout within the maze.
It's cool that his son Aza is commercializing these, best of luck Aza!
#17
Antinous, I was thinking that too..
And I know a lot of BBers have a lot of books just sitting around, waiting for a lick of flame before fulfilling their deviant destiny.
I know books take longer to catch fire than boxes but when they do.. woo!
Secretly, books like to burn.. Hitler would be gutted.
These were invented by Jef Raskin, the inventor of apples.
One time in the 70s we went out to his ranch in Montana and before we could come in, we had to fight our way through a squadron (or perhaps 2 squadrons!) of fierce papercraft tigers. When we finally made it to the ranch house, it was totally made of Bloxums and his fierce apprentice Ava made us cast lots for the early print catalog of Boing Boing. We lost, but Ava went on to sell boxes on the internet.
No one knows what happened to Jef Raskin. Some say he was taken into the night by the tigers; some that he was trying out a special shrinking lazor on one of his apples, but due to an error he was zapped into a computer where he has to subsist on giant oatmeal cookies and ride around on ants and such, but either way I miss him.
True story.
Finally! I can record that album right here in my paper-thin apartment.
Except that it would probably be less expensive for me to just, uh, move out.
I think you mean damping, which is the act of reducing oscillations. Dampening is the act of hosing something down, which may or may not damp sound waves, but would probably melt the bloxus.
Looking at how big a cube is made with your $60 set of 20, that (pretty ugly) divider wall is a cool $1000-worth! I don't know how much wood costs in your neck of the woods, but you could achieve the same effect in a lot of much more durable materials for the same or less.
This is an interesting product. What will make it a great product will be if someone produces it with all recycled materials, cheaply, and in a way which addresses the safety concerns. What would make it brilliant would be if someone where to produce a stamper that enabled you to make your own.
@15
I strangely like the idea so much more after hearing you call it "Cardboard legos"
They don't ship to Europe, so it doesn't really matter, but my first impression was "pretty cool, can maybe soundproof my studio with that". But it's pretty expensive and every block seems to be printed with the .com name? I ain't paying for that!
Looks as if it came right out of Blade Runner.
Looks like right out of Blade Runner.
Well, I can't really justify paying $60 for cardboard, not when I have access to all kinds of left over newspapers, free cardboard and the like. I do need to put some kind of sound dampener in between my apartment and the neighbors. I don't want to hear EVERYTHING they do, but it's gotta be cheap and available. Any suggestions? Drop by leave a note help a sister who has hyper hearing cravensworld.wordpress.com thanks
Also here in the humid south, those things would be mold harvesters and cockroach nests. Cockroaches love corrugated cardboard.
Very pretty!
But buying "recylable" flamamamamamamble cardboard? Nah, no thanks!
Reminds me of some wannabe punks who, not wanting to own bourgouis glassware, went to a store and bought cases of mason jars.
Wow, never even thought of the pest angle. We have a squirrel problem here, they come in through the vents of the apartment roof and nest in nooks and crannies. Usually where I keep my old grocery bags under the sink.
I went to the website to order some, but I'm not paying $200+ to build furniture so that squirrels and other critters can nest in it.
Good idea in theory, bad in long term practice. And looking at the assembly instructions it seems like it would take forever to put together a temporary structure like a tradeshow booth or something.
The price is a bit steep (their web site sez they make limited runs, maybe once they come up to speed price might come down) and flammability might be an issue. But for damping down the acoustics of an overly "live" room they'd probably be great. Better than egg cartons, and more visually attractive.