Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/21/polka-time.html
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Neat but I am not sure about the long term durability of it.
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Cats would love it…
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It looks like someone glued together a buttload of accordion file folders. Needs a strap to hold it together in the compressed position. Wonder what the interior cross gussets look like.
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Aye, there’s the rub.
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I feel like $500 could get you a pretty dang posh futon, and that would sleep two.
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it can support up to 300kg
The real question is how much it can support at any given point, because people aren’t flat sheets that spread their weight evenly over a surface (and the futon pad can only do so much). If it requires an intervening piece of (e.g.) plywood to evenly distribute weight on it, to prevent it from being mashed down, in the long term, in the spots where you sit or sleep on it, that rather stops it from being a pull-out bed.
Yeah, since it is cardboard, I don’t see how it can avoid getting mashed down over time, making it a neat but approximately $500 disposable bed.
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I encountered the DIY (DIWhy) version a while back:
https://v.redd.it/qbov5r5n7ch21/DASH_1080?source=fallback
Folds up even smaller!
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just think of it as “permanent memory foam”.
wait, no, “forgetting” foam.
or something.
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All those crevices make me think of dust and bedbugs.
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I think if momma had that squeezebox, daddy would hardly sleep at night.
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After sex smoking might be a problem.
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But how does it sound? Good?
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That foam “mattress” looks hideous. I suppose it might be comfortable if you’re twelve.
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The durability aside, there’s also the paper itself to be considered. As in, “Is this standard treated-with-every-toxic-chemical-known-to-man paper?” If one is at all sensitive to things like formaldehyde (among others) sleeping all night atop a large brick of the stuff might not be something you should do. Unfortunately, the websites say nothing about the makeup of the paper.
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Thank you for saying this.
I usually keep quiet on these angles, in part because I have posted on the same, here, and in part because not all bOINGERs here have compromised health, with issues like cancer (or survival thereof), asthma, allergies, migraines, etc. For people who are robust healthy pictures of human health, concerns like yours–and mine–are not a priority.
The offgassing of upholstery foam (“foam rubber”) in an enclosed space, the offgassing of the glues holding the laminated bamboo or wood together, the places for dust to hide… these are the bad actors for indoor air quality. If you can’t open a window periodically and acquire some fresh air supply1 even if you live in a city then your body will have an increased body burden as it stores chemicals it can’t get exhale/excrete/sweat out/get rid of.
In most developed countries there is such a huge presence of plastics from packaging to clothing to furniture to electronics to corrective lenses (both contact lenses and regualr eyeglasses unless those lenses are actually made of glass) to all the plastic crap geegaws humans buy from Amazon… and obviously a lot more. Most of us don’t even notice how much of this damn stuff surrounds us or what it’s doing to us, longterm.
[I acknowledge that having choices about plastic or no plastic is definitely a privilege. A First World Problem. But First World (a term I dislike) leads the way so often, re so much.]
Worth a mention for anyone wanting to reduce plastic in his/her life:
I don’t live near the ocean. Why should I worry about plastic there?
A 2017 study from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that 95% of plastic in the ocean comes from land: Plastic flows in rivers from land to sea, in the runoff from highly populated coastal cities, and from maritime activities such as fishing and shipping. Even if you live in a landlocked area, your plastic consumption is likely a contributor to the problem.2
And yeah, I too question the longterm durability of folded paper being asked to expand and contract repeatedly, as other posters here have pointed out. Cloth would have been a better alternative, especially if it is removable and can be laundered. Maybe the designer thought that cloth would present a too-shower-curtain-y kinda aesthetic though. At least paper recycles well, and composts well.
Yanko Design does seem to have some interesting projects. I bookmarked the site, and it reminds me a bit of Design Boom, a site I go to sometimes when I want to persuade myself that the future might not be as shitty and dystopian as I suspect it probably will be.
https://www.amazon.com/Never-Home-Alone-Millipedes-Honeybees/dp/1541645766
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I slept on a fairly dense hard natural latex mattress once. It was probably 3-4 inches thick. It wasn’t too bad, but I probably would not want to do it every day. Plus, if you are using the foam padding as seating, there’s going to be uneven wear on any pad of any material, and that will affect quality of sleep and the sat-upon pads start to permanently compress over time.
Putting something like one of those on this pull-out bed in this configuration is going to double or triple the price. Maybe store an additional rolled-up extra firm pad inside the bed?
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I’m wondering what key it’s in.
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Still, looks not super comfy for a full night’s sleep.
Improvement over this though!
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