PaludiApplications / Reet+
from moor to furniture
In order to offer farmers a sustainable perspective for the farming of rewetted moorland, PaludiApplications is researching a wide range of possible applications for moor materials. The experience and knowledge gained in the project is shared with local stakeholders through application and form studies. One outstanding example is the Reet+ stool, which demonstrates the potential for local furniture production. In its production, reed is first shaped in a negative mould and then fixed in place using vacuum thermoforming. This method ensures high stability and a robust surface without the two materials being glued together. The stool is not only easy to manufacture, but can also be disassembled and recycled at the end of its service life.
student: | Jakob Trepel |
project: | The Plant Project – Resilience Part II |
year: | 2024 |
Germany is the world champion. At least when it comes to draining mires. Around 95% of peatlands in Germany are currently used for agriculture and are permanently drained. But drained moors emit huge amounts of CO2. This is because the water and the low pH value in the moors ensure that decomposition processes are extremely slowed down. This means that plants that previously drew CO2 from the atmosphere are preserved in the bog instead of being decomposed. This makes peatlands in their natural state a gigantic carbon store. Although peatlands cover only a fraction of the area of forests of forests, they store twice as much CO2 as all the world’s forests put together. Without the rewetting of peatlands, Germany cannot possibly achieve its climate targets. However, this is becoming an existential threat for farmers, as they can no longer practise conventional agriculture in these areas. One solution is paludiculture. This means cultivating the waterlogged areas. This allows CO2 to be stored in the soil and still generate an income for the farmers. There are numerous plants adapted to these conditions. In addition to reeds, there are mosses, sedges, bulrushes, alders, birches, rushes and many other plants that can be grown there. At the moment, however, there is still a lack of sales markets for these plants, as there are hardly any applications or experience in how to handle the new materials. Paludi-Applications is beginning to close this gap and is using furniture as an example to investigate the possible applications for the various raw materials. First of all, various materials were examined for their functionality in furniture construction, cultivability, ecology and workability.
Materials such as bog birch, rushes and reeds proved to be promising, as they are easy to cultivate and are already available in large quantities. The experiments then focused on the material, but also on the question of how the materials can be combined in such a way that they can be recycled or composted at the end of their use. This resulted in a series of different experiments and processes that are intended to invite people to take up and reuse the findings. Reet+ is a piece of furniture designed to demonstrate and investigate the scalability of serial production. The process works in four steps: Molding, fixing, sawing and deep drawing. The process uses the principle of a nail board in that the reed stalks are placed loosely in a negative mold, fixed and then sawn off straight. The final step harnesses the power of the vacuum, as the stalks are pressed together over a large area under atmospheric pressure in the thermoforming machine. As the plastic cools, it hardens and forms the connecting element and a comfortable seat shape in one. As the plastic firmly encloses the shape but does not stick to the reed, it can be easily cut open, separated and recycled at the end of the product’s life. The manufacturing process that demonstrates this method is easy to scale up and shows that industrial production of reed products in unlimited shapes is possible.
