Expanding Cork
Mining the material - cork beyond the wine stopper.
Cork is a fascinating natural and sustainable material; the slowly grown bark of a particular species of oak. Traditionally harvested and used ‘neat’, its main market has been for use in sealing wine bottles. Corks, however, have been under threat from the competition posed by metal screw-top lids and farmers have been searching for new markets for their material. This project invited an investigative and design challenge - to expand the use of the bark in innovative ways. These bird boxes were part of a response to this challenge after an immersive trip around the Portuguese Montado where much of the world’s cork is grown.
Bird Box - the "Egg". Recycled cork stoppers and tree resin
"Egg" and friends - moulded cork, dye and resin
Cork as a material
The cork oak is a slow growing tree and harvested for the bark in 7 yearly cycles. The bark is expertly peeled away using a special tool so as not to damage the growing layer of the tree, the Cambium. It’s an interesting material: thermally efficient, acoustically sound absorbing, fire-resistant, abrasion resistant and incredibly light. Above all it’s natural, renewable and carbon friendly.
Cork logs
Carcass left from extraction of corks for bottles
Stripped cork oak tree
Pile of stripped cork bark
Portuguese Montado
Seven years of bark growth
The cork is stripped from the tree using a special axe (machada da cortiça) and is a skilled job. It makes a delicious squeaky noise as it’s prised away.
Cork as a sustainable material
Cork should be a winner ecologically speaking. Renewable, carbon capturing, and providing an incredible natural habitat for wildlife and biodiversity whilst it regenerates. Our challenge as makers is to keep that purity, and not downgrade the material by mixing it with less earth-friendly elements. The resin added to the cork claimed to be on the eco spectrum but many of the products used to bind cork may not be. Besides, since when did a bird need us to build it a house? They do an amazing job with just a tiny beak. More research uncovered a way of binding the cork by heating to extreme temperatures so that it pops rather like corn. On popping the natural resin in the tree is released and binds the (rather burnt) cork back together. This lamp was able to take advantage of cork’s thermal resilience - tolerating the bulb directly inside the material.
Agglomerated cork lamp