We last looked at designer Toni Grilo's work in "Get Your Insane Objet D'Art Furniture Fix Here." (If you haven't seen that link yet, I highly recommend checking it out.) I've just learned Grilo's also designed a complete line of furniture in cork—he's the creative director for a Portugese furniture brand called Blackcork:
The brand describes their production process:
"Sustainable design. We only use cork of the branches (falca) for the manufacture of cork granules. These are block clusters in autoclave, being 100% natural process, without use of additives. The technology, developed by [expanded black cork manufacturer] Sofalca, consists of injecting water vapor through the pellets that will expand and agglutinate with the resins of the cork itself.
"This 'cooking' gives also a dark color to the agglomerated cork, like chocolate. In the production of steam is used biomass, obtained on milling and cleaning the falca, which makes it truly ecological production and without waste, 95% energy self-sufficient.
"As a super-material, cork offers so many advantages, because in addition to its excellent thermic, acoustic insulation and antivibration characteristic, it is also a CO2 sink playing a key-role in the environment."
There's plenty more to see here.
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Comments
I watched the intro video. Looks like a crazy intense process to make them. It's like a plastic, metal and woodworking facility all in one. Not sure how "sustainable" this really is...