Situated Sustainability: Cardboard, Care, and Community in the Practice of Bumi Kardus
The concern for sustainability has long circulated within the design industry, igniting an urgency for designers to consider, and work against ecological catastrophes. A focus on climate ‘disasters’, non-anthropocentric narrations and energy-saving initiatives become popular responses in reaching a sustainable practice of design, which are typically derived from Western academics and practitioners. This has manufactured a 'standard' of sustainability that oftentimes ignores the present needs of a community. For those who are able to adhere to this, their work is perceived to carry an added-marketing value; oftentimes, overlooking those whose practices lie beyond the conventions of what is deemed sustainable enough.
The truth of the matter is: sustainability requires a rootedness, one that is responsive to local urgencies, and is able to offer an alternative way to subvert the systemic harms conditioned by capitalistic production. In this case, perhaps sustainability is to practice an awareness of waste, and in a designer’s case, a recognition of excess engrained into the processes of production. Through cardboard, Baba Sanjaya embraces the potential of waste that is not only radical, but also heartwarming.
“I’m interested in the possibilities of cardboard, and I often think about what are the things we can create and do with this material?” Baba says during our video call, sitting comfortably in an open-space cafe while listening to the call to prayer. Bumi Kardus began as a pastime of watching Youtube and online tutorials of cardboard decors, which Baba followed and made for his daughter. He joked that she was his harshest critic, and challenged his ability to decorate: “Honestly, I’m only good with the production, and so I just let my daughter do the finishing.” Together, they experimented, and treated cardboard as a medium for many toys: he has made castles, houses, playgrounds; whatever his daughter would wish for.
One day, he decided to post several of his creations on his Facebook, and then, a friend reached out and asked if he took commissions. Baba said yes and after one, came another. “They all asked if I could make one for their kids!” he says, and recalls how every order – from Barbie dollhouses to cars– cemented the foundation for his business. In 2016, Baba took the leap and resigned from his security job to run what we know now as “Bumi Kardus”. This story is imprinted into its name: “Bumi Kardus is just an homage to my girl, since her name is Bumi and everything began from drawing and playing on cardboards with her. Hence, why I decided to name the business as Bumi Kardus.” He claimed that the discourse of sustainability was relatively new to him and his team, and their intent wasn’t necessarily to promote sustainability nor were they interested in positioning themselves as environmental activists. “Everything was just a… coincidence, believe it or not.” Baba laughed.
Bumi Kardus plays with the versatility of cardboard, as a material that can be broken-apart, built upon, drawn on, and transformed. Their portfolio boasts an extensive roster of partnerships with corporations, concert festivals, and non-governmental work, producing a range of output for booth decor and installations across Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Kuala Lumpur and London. Baba shared that its durability has benefitted both the client and company in transportation: “We have to make sure that whatever commissions that we receive can be easily built by the client, sometimes we’re able to supervise in setting up but other times, we have to be as clear as we can so they can set it up themselves. This was the case for our project with the Indonesian Embassy in London.”
Alongside commissions, Bumi Kardus typically conducts workshops that invite adults and children to build their own cardboard creations. Similar to his commissions, they began as a fun initiative, but it has quickly expanded into a “public program” that brings together participants to collectively create, and educate about the endless uses of cardboard. Baba claims that the responses amongst the participants’ age groups largely differ, inciting different points of curiosities, and paths of thinking: “Adults usually ask why or how cardboard is considered an ecofriendly material. I usually tell them that it is a misperception when people believe that recycling or using old cardboards are the only “ecofriendly” use or one that minimises waste, because the truth is “new” cardboards are recyclable in it of itself, because they are a compound material, as they’re produced from an accumulation of older materials,” Baba shared that most of the questions that were asked in adult-targeted workshops concern adopting a lifestyle that is more ecofriendly or waste-friendly; a reflection of the growing interest towards sustainability in Indonesia.
“Children, on the other hand, are far more explorative in their use of cardboard. They are always more curious in its use, treating it as a canvas for their imagination. Unlike adults, they are more concerned with using cardboard as a medium for play, they add accessories, decorate it, and design it.” Baba reflects. He continued that he was inspired by his own daughter’s response, and learns that children’s exploration plays a greater part in expanding the explorative use of cardboard. Perhaps it is here that we’ve learned that sustainability is not solely about the fixation on an ideology, but it is an invitation of active play where exploration can form processes into waste management itself. “It was through Bumi that I realised that my part (as an adult) is to involve children in the processes of collective creation, and to grant them the ability to experiment themselves. Children have a sense of agency, and ownership that can only be nurtured through creation.”
We return to Baba’s beginnings in starting Bumi Kardus, where he shared that his heart lies in initiating projects that involve children: “If I’m allowed to say, I’m passionate about doing projects that involve children, like making playgrounds. Since they will be made of cardboard, you can see the children scribble or make new shapes with it.” Playgrounds have established the core of Bumi Kardus’ (unannounced) mission to realise cardboard’s potential of play; becoming a medium for game activities, playgrounds, and rides.
When asked about his ‘favourite’ projects, Baba prefers to list a roster of clients, such as Sekolah Murid Merdeka and SmartKids Asia: “We learn a lot in these collaborations, because we’re able to reimagine (the context of) play for children together. For example, in SmartKids Asia, we were able to tell children stories before they entered the playground, which allowed them to have a narrative in their heads to make-believe and see the cardboard differently. And then, as they entered, they began their mission of finding the “treasure” within the cardboard.”
As a parent himself, Baba centres children in his “design practice” (read: Baba humbly rejects calling himself a designer), perhaps revealing his own distinct and indirect relationship to ecology as one rooted in care, play, and intergenerational exchange. Alongside his team, they’ve found a praxis of sustainability through game activities, playgrounds, and rides from cardboard – positioning their projects not only as materially resourceful, but socially generative. What began as an intimate act between father and daughter has since expanded into a broader practice that invites others to participate, imagine, and build collectively. In this sense, Bumi Kardus does not merely recycle material; it reconfigures relationships between people, waste, and the act of creation itself.
Rather than conforming to a prescribed standard of sustainability, Baba’s work demonstrates that sustainable practice can emerge from situated, everyday gestures: ones that prioritise accessibility, joy, and responsiveness to community. Perhaps Baba shares that it is here that sustainability shifts from a fixed framework into a lived process.
