Home
News
Buildings
Comment
Events
Practice
Footprint
Specification
Culture
Student
Competitions
Buildings Library
- AJBL Home
- Building search
- Projects
- Architects
- Submit a project
- What is the AJBL?
- Sign in | Subscribe
  Log in
  Sign in
  
  Help
  
  Sign in
  
  If you’ve activated your online subscription to the AJ or you already have an account for the AJ Buildings Library, sign in below.
  
  Email address:
  
  Password:
  
  Remember me
  
  Forgotten password? | Subscribe now
  
  By continuing to use the site you agree to our Privacy & Cookies policy
  
  AJ Subscribers
  The AJ Buildings Library is available as a subscription benefit to AJ subscribers. If you’ve activated your online subscription on TheAJ.co.uk, you can use the same credentials to sign in on AJBL.
  If you have not activated your subscription on the AJ website you will need to do so to access the AJ Buildings Library.
  
  Not an Architects' Journal subscriber?
  Choose one of these options:
  Subscribe today for immediate access to AJ Buildings Library, TheAJ.co.uk and The Architects’ Journal magazine.
  
  Find out more about all the benefits of a subscription to The Architects' Journal.
  
  For all queries regarding access to AJ online, please email our Online Help Desk at customerservices@ArchitectsJournal.co.uk

Email address:
Password:
	Remember me

The Cardboard Building

Cottrell and Vermeulen Architecture, Westcliff-on-Sea, 2001

Subscribe now to instantly view this image

Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.

Already a subscriber? Sign in

Peter Grant (website) Download Original

Experimental cardboard school building designed to last for 20 years and test the sustainability of using cardboard within a built project

The permanent educational and community space, that includes a kitchen and toilets, is made almost entirely from recycled material. The aim was to use 90 per cent recycled and recyclable materials, to create both a structure and a play space that worked with the properties of the material.

The building's main structural elements are constructed from cardboard. Tubes are used as load bearing columns to support a wooden roof truss that runs the length of the building. The wall and roof panels are made from a honeycomb and edged with timber to allow conventional joinery methods to be used.

Artist Simon Patterson screen printed onto the cladding panels of the front elevation images of instructions for an origami heron, a local species.

The school communities were involved with the project from the outset. The children collected card for recycling, helped design and develop the building, and took part in a live BBC broadcast.

Data

Begun: 2001
Completed: 2001
Floor area: 80m²
Sector: Education
Total cost: £177,000
Address: Westborough Primary School, Macdonald Avenue, Westcliff-on-Sea, SS0 9BS, United Kingdom