Cardboard Commons
What can a cardboard box tell us about democracy?
Building together
Cardboard is cheap, familiar and easy to manipulate. You don't need specialist knowledge to start making. A box can become a wall, a house, a hiding place, a spaceship — or something completely unexpected.
In Cardboard Commons, visitors are invited to cut, connect, stack and transform cardboard, together creating a constantly changing spatial structure. There is no blueprint and no final form. Every new piece changes the whole.
The installation builds on Studio Ludiek's practice of using play and making as tools for participation. Instead of asking people to first explain what they imagine, we start making. Through building, testing and rebuilding, ideas become tangible and can develop together.
For the Design & Democracy exhibition at Design Museum Gent, Studio Ludiek was invited to create a participatory installation exploring how design can contribute to more inclusive and accessible ways of making together.
We started with something very ordinary: the cardboard box.
Cardboard boxes are everywhere. They carry our groceries, furniture and online orders, and often quickly become waste. But what if we look at them not as something to throw away, but as something to build with?
A small experiment in democracy
Who decides where something goes? How much space do we take? What happens when our ideas meet someone else's?
Cardboard Commons becomes a small-scale experiment in collective space-making. The structure grows through participation, negotiation, cooperation and change.
Take a box.
Cut. Connect. Build.
Give shape to your own place — and to someone else's.
Tools for everyone
To make working with cardboard even more accessible, we designed a set of simple tools for children and adults: connection elements using ordinary split pins, a cardboard saw, hole maker, folding tool and other connectors.
The tools are open source and designed to be 3D printed at home. We wanted the toolkit to live beyond the exhibition and allow anyone to continue experimenting with cardboard.
Want to build your own cardboard toolkit?
Send us an email and we'll share the files with you.
Design & Democracy, Design Fest Gent 2026
DING, Design Museum Gent
Location
Gent, Belgium
Date
2026