
How about self-assembling furniture that grows right in front of your eyes? Sound interesting, then look no further than this invention by Belgian designer Carl de Smet. Simply put, his furniture designs can be compressed to just 5% of their original size and when opened at a predefined temperature, they slowly expand to the final shape. Continue reading for a video and more information.
The furniture is made of very lightweight polyurethane shape-memory polymers (SMPs), which has memory foam properties. That allows it to be compressed to 5 percent of its original size while remembering its original form. That property also means it can recover from damage.
The only requirement to make these pieces of furniture expand is heat. For the moment, the programmed temperature for expansion is 70 degrees so that it won�t start expanding by accident on a hot day while being transported.
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