Freefold Furniture

I ventured in to the Australian International Furniture Fair last week pretty much to meet up with Toby Horrocks from Freefold Furniture.

And I have to say that whilst The Edge (emerging designers) had some great furniture and ideas, Freefold really did stand out as an innovative and cool looking design whilst still being sustainable and functional.

Freefold is a modular storage unit that won best sustainable product at the Idea Awards 09 in Sydney.

The flatpack boxes are made out of 97% recycled carboard and don’t require any glues to assemble. Founder Toby Horrocks is a trained architect, who after 9 years working at John Wardle Architects has gone solo in order to have the time to pursue his work at Freefold.

When I met Toby at the Fair he had just finished chatting to a Taiwanese couple that were encouraging him to manufacture in Taiwan. I asked him if this is something he would be interested he didn’t completely say no to the idea. You see- the Xanita board (recycled cardboard which is sturdy and durable) that Freefold is made out of is actually produced in South Africa and along the process to creating the storage system costs just got too high for the product. ($80 + GST per module) This has lead Toby to looking elsewhere for materials and manufacturing.

Currently he is in discussions with Visy to create a thinner completely Australian made recycled card shelving unit.

Freefold is being used in pop up boutiques- being an interesting looking display case that as it is easy to pack down and can be used to transport the products.

It is is soon to be used at Urban Reforestation community garden shop at Melbourne Docklands. The shop is part of a global campaign aiming to inspire urban farming for sustainability and food security.