Affordable natural solution that allows customers to create their own design and assemble it into durable yet flexible furniture with no tools or screws.
Lisbon — CORKBRICK EUROPE, a sustainable and modular architectural startup from Portugal, after 16 months of research and product development has launched its crowdfunding campaign to raise capital for the new way to furnish home, office and outdoors. The target investment is €150,000 to be raised within the next 2 months. CORKBRICK EUROPE has a 200 million NPV. Seeders.com, based in London, was chosen as the crowdfunding platform to target Northern Europe in the first round.
Invented by Miguel Reynolds Brandão, a serial entrepreneur from Portugal, and his daughter Catarina Reynolds Brandão, a young architect, CORKBRICK initially was an idea for their home in search of a simple and natural solution, easy to mount and dismount without any tools. Together they came up with a solution that will not only satisfy this, but also will be produced from a natural and lightweight material. That’s how a CORKBRICK was born.
The CORKBRICK comes in 7 shapes that allow to build structures in various dimensions to create tailorable designs that fit any home, office or outdoor area. It also provides solutions for fairs and exhibitions with partition walls and other application. With its international patent currently pending CORKBRICK EUROPE has also developed its own moulding technology. It is produced in Portugal, the world leader in cork processing.
With the total of 200 million households in the European Union, CORKBRICK EUROPE targets the market worth more than €2.5 billion. CORKBRICK’s target price is €98 per sq. m. and with a 10-year plan the company is looking at reaching 0.1% of the total household furniture market in Europe. CORKBRICK EUROPE has already been acclaimed by PORTUGAL 2020, the partnership of Portugal and the EU with a rate of 4,6 out of 5 by its economic impact.
CORKBRICK EUROPE embraces the principle of co-creation in their marketing by establishing a deep relationship with the customer through a community of followers and fans. It aims to reward creativity and empower further development and growth. Using CORKBRICK anyone can fulfill their design through the online platform that will be launched once the project is fully funded. The investment raised will allow CORKBRICK EUROPE to build the production facilities and start delivering CORKBRICK to customers.
With the production line based in Portugal CORKBRICK EUROPE, plans to expand gradually throughout Europe starting with the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Holland and then to the rest of the EU. Once the European market is covered CORKBRICK EUROPE is aiming to go global with expanding to the USA, Japan, China, Brazil and Australia.
Miguel Reynolds Brandão: CORKBRICK lends itself to the consumer culture that seeks creative, easy to assemble and flexible interior design and furnishing options. We believe it appeals to those consumers who just want simple, affordable and durable home solutions that do not require even basic assembly skills. I trust that it has the potential to become the new Lego for adults with the advantage of being fun, useful and also made of a natural material!
About CORKBRICK
CORKBRICK is a creative, cost efficient, renewable and reusable modular construction kit utilising 7 unique geometric shapes made of 100% recyclable cork. These 7 pieces can be combined and recombined in near endless configurations. Cork furniture and structural walls can be used inside houses and outdoors. The entire process of assembly and disassembly can be done without the use of special tools, fasteners or adhesives. Designs can be modified to fit any space and serve any purpose.
At present, cork is used mainly for the production of wine bottle stoppers and also for materials in flooring, insulating walls and ceilings. For these types of application only a small part of cork is used, which corresponds to about 20% of all cork produced, leaving enormous potential available for CORKBRICK EUROPE’s production of parts with a very low base value.
Portugal is the largest producer of cork in the world. The tree providing the material, that grows as bark, is the cork oak. It can be first harvested after 25 years of a tree’s life. Cork oaks live up to 250 years, providing in cycles of about 10 years a solid renewable material, removal of which from the trunk makes no harm to the trees. This makes CORKBRICK a 100% sustainable material.
Contact Information:
Miguel Reynolds Brandão
m.reynolds@corkbrick.com
+351214850020