Papercrete
Papercrete a fairly new composite is composed of Portland cement, sand, paper pulp, and water. This mixture can be poured on to forms, made into bricks, and used as mortar between other materials. I approached this material by making samples using different mixtures with varying ratios of the ingredients. The more cement, the stronger and heavier the end result. The more paper pulp that used resulted in a material that was weak and tended to crumble. I placed my samples on a piece of Plexiglas to dry, after removing them the surfaces that were touching the Plexiglas were smooth and glassy. This effect highlighted the differences in surface quality that could be achieved using this material and I wanted to demonstrate these qualities in my chair. It was also important that I kept the majority of the mixture paper pulp so that the chair would not end up being extremely heavy and lose most of the properties that make papercrete a natural building material.
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