To round off the week of cork exploration, I wanted to find a piece of furniture that exhibits cork in an interesting way. The luminious cork cabinet by Joe Pipal shows off the warm glow of cork much in the same way as the Float lights by Benjamin Hubert. Produced in association with Craft Central, Pipal’s cork cabinet was exhibited at the London Design Festival in 2009. For those who are unfamiliar, the London Design Festival is the UK’s biggest annual celebration of design and “reflects London’s status as the world creative hub.” London Design Festival

Luminous Cork and Wenge Cabinet. Designed by Joe Pipal.

The cabinet is made with cork, birch plywood, maple and wenge. The cork block is harvested in Portugal and is used in its natural state to create the beautiful textured doors on the face of the cabinet. To quickly reiterate cork’s virtues, it is a renewable resource that is recyclable as well as resilient and attractive. Pipal is noted for being fascinated by the properties of cork. “He loves it because it is heat resistant, a good sound insulator, buoyant, naturally elastic and lightweight.” –treehugger

Wenge is an endangered species of wood that originates in west Africa. The wenge used in this cabinet is reclaimed parquet flooring that spent its first life on the floor of the old baltic exchange in London. The building was built in 1903 and then bombed in 1992 by the IRA. Years of use, weathering, and finally destruction has given the wenge a dense, rich look which is a great contrast to the porous cork. Pipal used the wenge as a continuous casing on the exterior of the cabinet, and proportioned the piece to recall the blocks of the parquet. These materials come together in a cabinet that hangs delicately off the wall, adding lightness to the wenge and glow to the cork.

via treehugger