Download our new brochure

Natural and sustainable, cork is one of the super eco materials inspiring ‘green’ designers, architects and even contemporary furniture designers

It’s ironic that the 70s, an era that championed the man-made and synthetic, should have dented the fortunes of one of our most natural, renewable, sustainable materials: cork, consigning it to a pin-board pigeon-hole for the next three decades.

Happily in recent years a number of designers and architects have initiated a renaissance in cork’s fortunes, enthused by its environmental credentials.
Harvested, by hand, from the bark of the cork oak tree in an undamaging nine-year cycle, cork is recyclable, impermeable, fire-retardant, and anti-bacterial: nothing short of a super-material. (If that sounds like hyperbole consider the fact that cork is used in the Space Shuttle’s protective heat shield.)

After harvesting cork bark is primarily used for wine bottle stoppers with the waste being granulated. After grading, these granules are combined with a binder, compressed and fired in a kiln, typically in blocks from which tiles are cut. Any waste from this stage fuels the kilns.

Made up of millions of cells cork boasts unrivalled acoustic and thermal insulation qualities; its in-built cushioning making it both pressure-resistant and shock-absorbing. Ideal qualities, in today’s multi-dwelling, textile- and carpet-free buildings, for flooring and soundproofing.

‘The most ecological flooring finishes are cork and lino,’ states Jonathan Hines, director of Architype, a leading eco architectural practice, relating that most hard floorings, like vinyl, are petrochemical-based. ‘The key thing is to finish cork with a natural, breathable, wax finish. A natural cork floor has no electro effect, unlike synthetic carpet, but if it’s finished with a synthetic varnish you destroy that,’ he explains. ‘The best finishes are based on beeswax, tree oils and linseed oil. OSMO and AURO are two of the main brands.’

Perhaps most winningly, for a nation of softies, as Hines concludes, ‘What you get with cork flooring is a beautiful floor finish that is pleasant to walk on with bare feet because it is a very warm material’. It’s also compatible with under-floor heating.

Robinson Cork in Portugal prides itself on having ‘pioneered’ cork parquet producing a vast array of patterned designs. More contemporary is Wicanders’ plank-style flooring.

But it is in the three-dimensional that cork has really shaken off it’s retro associations, aided by the Midas-like attention of designer Jasper Morrison who has used agglomerate cork in a series of stools-cum-tables, designing Corks for Moooi in 2002 and then, in 2004, Cork Family for Vitra.

Cork is the signature material, no less, for up-and-coming, design-outfit, Doistrinta. Simon Mount, creative director, states the collective is ‘concerned [with] changing people’s perception of cork and promoting sustainability through design and material use. Beyond upholstered pieces using cork ‘laterally as upholstery; so that when we form the chair the cushioning is formed at same time, at source,’ are bowls, bath mats and lighting.

Similarly, Daniel Michalik in the US, whose work ‘focuses on researching and expanding the uses of under-utilised, unconventional material,’ has exploited cork’s inherent flexibility to make a range of eye-catching, ergonomic furniture that includes the Sway stool which, he relates, is ideal for desk-slaves. Describing himself as ‘part woodworker, part corksmith,’ he says he’s ‘tried to explore the deep potential of this wonderfully tactile material, making it do things that only it can do.’ Having also designed cork bowls and dishes he posits the material has yet another use, as a bicycle helmet.
We’ll leave that one with you.

Architype www.architype.co.uk
AURO www.auro.co.uk
Cork Industry Federation www.cork-products.co.uk
Daniel Michalik www.danielmichalik.com
Doistrinta www.doistrinta.co.uk
Jasper Morrison www.jaspermorrison.com
OSMO www.osmouk.com
Robinson Cork www.robinson.pt
Siesta Cork Tile Company www.siestacorktile.com
Wicanders www.wicanders.com

Contemporary furniture for the home. Storage, shelving and home office furniture, offering contemporary style and sustainability www.ottofurniture.com. Further information on eco furniture, eco designers and eco-retailers is available on this site.