Proudly presenting our latest pulp product. There were five of us standing in a booth at the Milan Furniture Fair. It was April , and the sun was shining outside. It must have been over degrees. Yet there we stood, indoors, with paper cards in our hands trying to get Italian architecture students and designers from New Zealand interested in a brightly coloured children’s chair. Sometimes, we couldn’t help thinking: How did we ever end up here? It all started with an insight. An insight saying that paper is one of the most common everyday materials you can find. Your wallet and handbag are full of it. You write phone numbers on scraps of it. You wad it up to make room for better ideas. But we have been producing pulp for more than years. We know that it can be used for much, much more. So we took a historical decision. We started one of the largest projects in Södra’s history. The result is Pulp Labs, a place where we share our challenges with you. We begin each project with a vision of what paper could be. We may not know where we will end up, but you are welcome to join us as we find out. You see, we believe that by questioning everything we know to be true, and by testing the most difficult things that we can dream up, we will move forward. This is exactly why we were in Milan on that sunny day in late April. As our first Pulp Labs project we tested the potential durability of pulp. The result was Parupu, a children’s chair developed by Södra together with Innventia and the architects Claesson Koivisto Rune. The chair is made of DuraPulp, a new type of pulp that is extremely durable yet entirely compostable. Parupu captivated Milan and received accolades from the press throughout the world. And maybe, just maybe, we were able to plant a seed somewhere that will grow into new kinds of paper products. So here we stand now, ready to take on new challenges. But to do so, we need your help. So don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have an idea, be it everyday small or world changing. Because Pulp Labs will continue to grow as long as we believe that the world will be better off with a little more paper.Visit us at . previous page next page