It’s an object we’ve all grown up with, the familiar story of the cardboard box winning the four-year-old’s attention over the shiny new tricycle. Days are spent afterwards playing with the box – cutting, ripping, painting, folding and gluing it. It’s this ease and familiarity we have for cardboard that has made it an ideal material to work with.

Perhaps the designers featured in this book never did take notice of that new trike as their grown-up cardboard projects are wondrous and grand. In Paris, a whole office has been made of honeycomb cardboard, including shelving, meeting tables and even cubicles. A cardboard iPhone case also features, dubbed the “Recession Case” as it was born out of the recent recession and priced at only US$0.99. Locked together with two tabs and an adhesive strip, the design is simple and efficient.

A life-size Lambretta scooter has also been sculpted from cardboard, with the designer even incorporating functional, turning wheels. And if ever there were a project that proved the fascination and admiration we have for cardboard and its green values, it would be the Eco Coffin. Emitting ninety percent less carbon monoxide than its chipboard and plastic counterparts, the Eco Coffin biodegrades to leave no trace of toxicity in the ground and can even be decorated by family and friends.

This book is a neat little collection of projects from around the world, saluting that recognizable and disposable camel-brown material that, while often unremarkable in its basic form, can be transformed into clever and incredible uses.

AN\B Editions, 2010, 320 pp, $59.95.