FLEXICOMB

In the hands of Los Angeles designer/architects Dan Gottlieb and Penny Herscovitch of Padlab, light is several thousand drinking straws, packed into a honeycomb to make a new beautiful material. The idea for Flexicomb grew out of a research project on structural honeycombs at the Yale School of Architecture. Thousands of closely packed polypropylene tubes form the flexible honeycomb matrix, which bends in the convex direction while remaining rigid in the concave. This translucent material is a re-valuation of a disposable everyday product—plastic drinking straws. Flexicomb can be bent, sprung, and compressed to form sculptural installations, lighting, desktop accessories, and furniture prototypes.

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