Inspiration is a state of mind. You don’t need to travel to the other side of the world to see things differently, there are opportunities for inspiration all around us, all the time. Take Bin Xu for example; while he was studying to be an architect he was also working in a supermarket, opening and disposing of thousands of boxes as he refilled the supermarket shelves. While opening yet another box, the Chinese student was caught by the strong character of corrugated board, “It is low cost and you can find it everywhere”.

Here’s Bin Xu’s inspirational supermarket thinking; as most of the furniture you buy is packed in corrugated board which is sent for recycling after unpacking, Bin Xu decided to make a chair which was the packaging too – the so called box chair . It’s brilliantly simple, the only thing you have to do is open the box, unfold it, connect the contents of the box to the packaging material to create one unique object.

The box chair is like a cube of magic. In a maximum of 20 seconds a comfortable corrugated chair on steel legs appears.

And the best news, together with a corrugated board supplier, Bin Xu is now making plans to turn his box chair into a commercial success.