A house with a cardboard core

When a packaging item becomes a functional tool for “good living”. Moba Eurotubi Srl’s commitment “supports” - in every sense of the word - a project of sustainable architecture.

* Eco-Luoghi arose from the joint collaboration between Associazione Mecenate 90, The Italian Ministry of the Environment and Unioncamere.

Since 21 September, located in the heart of the capital’s Testaccio district, the former Rome slaughterhouse has hosted the Eco-Luoghi* exhibition, dedicated to the home, the city and the new ways of living.
The event, created to promote innovative projects and methodologies in the name of environmental and architectural sustainability, arises from the namesake competition to promote the realization of projects to stimulate the redevelopment of Italian territories, the limitation of ground use and preventing harm to the environment.
 
Carthome Project: from theory...
In the two sections of the competition - which established the design guidelines for “Homes for sustainable living” and “Urban regeneration” - the participants were in the first case asked to design a single-family eco-house of 45 sqm and, in second case, to draw up a project for the architectural and functional redevelopment of disused and abandoned areas.
The CARTHOME project, developed by the multidisciplinary React Studio team, made up of engineers and architects, came under the “sustainable living” section. Chosen from among the winners, the studio had the opportunity to realize the 1:1 model of a ecological house in the spaces of the former slaughterhouse, making use of the active contribution of Moba Eurotubi.
 
... to practice. Designed as a modular sustainable home, easy and quick to assemble, the house has a unique feature, given that its main structural element is the cardboard tube. Used with different sections, the tubes enable two types of structures to be built at the same time: a frame structure, thanks to the circular section tubes and, using square tubes positioned in sequence, a “supporting masonry” structure.
Completely biodegradable and optimal for temporary construction, the choice fell on the cardboard tube both for intrinsic ecological value and the speed in which it can be assembled and disposed of. Thus, after the feasibility studies about the possible adoption of cardboard tubes in building work, React Studio was able to proceed in carrying out the real housing model, that could only be built through self-funding or by companies/concerns directly involved in the project.
Hence the active participation of Moba Eurotubi Srl which, in addition to financing the entire project, also provided the necessary material - the innovative square-section cardboard tubes - used to create the house prototype.

MOBA EUROTUBI SRL Producer of spiral and in-line cardboard tubes and cores, for wrapping and packaging, made of regenerated/recovered cardboard. In a year it uses about 610,000 km of paper, equivalent to 55,000 t, for an average of about 130 million standard and special tubes produced.