Designing with Cork – A New Way

Sustainability has been a hot topic for some time now and we had discussed about this in our last blog and the designers are changing their concepts looking for materials that have got a lesser effect on the environment. Materials that can be recycled, recyclable are gaining Vogue and had started to make their mark in architecture and design.

One of these materials is cork is a water resistant, able to float, non-flammable and flexible material that is collected from the cork oak forests of North Africa and South Europe. But the material cork is being used for every purpose which we can imagine are flooring, furniture, walls and other accessories.

Cork material is extracted from the bark of the Cork Oak Tree. The extraction process does not really damage the tree & it is renewable. Every nine years there is new bark that has to be removed. So cork is a material that comes directly from nature & there is very little processing involved. So the ecological trace from its extraction until the final product is comparatively very low compared to the industry average of plastic production. Therefore when you hold a cork material made product in your hand you can feel that you are holding a bit of nature & not some synthetic unhealthy material. That’s the beauty of cork.

On a very important note as the cork is sustainable, the more people will procure it, the more the cork industry needs to plant more cork oak trees and that create a cycle that is healthy for the environment of our planet. So supporting cork is in fact supporting nature.