“It’s time to change everything we know about paper,” is the mission statement of Sodra Pulp Labs.

And that’s what the Swedish architecture firms that partner with the labs are doing as they wrap their minds around 50 years of research on pulp-based materials.

“Could it be durable? Waterproof? Light and insulating? Hard as Kevlar? We don’t know the answers, but you’re welcome to join us as we find them out,” says the lab.

Well, one thing is for sure: it can be kid-proof, such as the Parapu kids’s chair by the architecture firm Claesson Koivisto Rune. Designed for the Milan Furniture Fair 2009, the chairs are stackable for extra play date seating and are seen as a great way to spare our forests and avoid petroleum-based plastics.

Made of compostable Durapulp (a combo of pulp and biodegradable resin from sugar cane), they are sturdy like their name indicates and a way to keep the well-designed nursery free of that oh- so-yucky chemical smell that can take weeks to air out.

Image via: Inhabitots