rockpaperscissors is a material lab based in Bombay, established in 2018 alongside its architecture and interior design counterpart, Studio Tessera, by Sagarika Suri.

The lab is committed to utilizing waste materials; presently, we are engaged in passionately transforming waste plywood into functional, artful furniture. Our mission is simple yet impactful: to challenge the boundaries of material reuse and bring thoughtful design into contemporary spaces.

We’d love to introduce you to Liquidply - our signature collection born from experimenting with discarded plywood sourced from construction sites, ply manufacturing units, and scrap dealers. The result is a range of sculptural, durable objects that celebrate the raw anatomy and beauty of plywood through wood-turning and precision craftsmanship.

Larger interior and architecture projects from the studio offer themselves as spaces to encounter these materials. These sites generate a lot of waste, and one begins to question the sustainability of the entire process. Enticed by the possibility of elongating the life of the waste generated, the studio started to experiment with this waste as raw material for objects that can find space within these large-scale projects. Experiments helped us understand the potential the material holds beyond just serving its purpose as a construction material. They led us to create functional objects that infused moments of play through the exploration of forms that the raw material offered.

Plywood is one of the most widely used construction materials and one of the largest generators of waste. From high-grade marine ply used for concrete shuttering to commercial ply used in furniture, every site and workshop produces significant scraps. Wood waste is the second-largest component of construction and demolition debris after concrete, accounting for nearly 10% of all landfill material each year.

A typical 1,000 sq. m interior site takes about 10 months to complete and uses 15–18 cubic meters of plywood, generating roughly 5% waste which is about 1 to 1.5 cubic meters of offcuts and scraps. An average Liquidply product needs just 0.05–0.065 cubic meters of waste plywood laminated together, meaning that a single site’s leftovers can create 15–20 products. These numbers reveal the immense upcycling potential hidden in the city’s construction landscape.

Because plywood sequesters carbon during the tree’s lifetime, remains strong and durable, and can be recycled repeatedly, extending its life through upcycling deepens its role as long-term carbon storage. Each new product made from waste plywood reduces the need for fresh material and with it, carbon dioxide emissions.

The studio has a twofold approach towards sustainability: first, through 'environmental impact', and second, through the lens of 'transformation by design'.

We are creating city-wide inventories through a network of designers, makers, and contractors who can hand over their plywood waste so that substantial waste material can be collected, catalogued and reassembled. Once reassembled, we use process-intensive methods to refine and reinvent these scraps, bringing finesse to the products and removing their associations with waste. This approach closes a loop of sustainable design, addressing both environmental impact and the design process. In dovetailing interior and product design practice and creating a circular ecosystem, Liquidply is an experiment in reducing the overall footprint of the design practice itself.

The project is a celebration of the anatomy of a material. It is also a celebration of the afterlife of a material and the satisfaction of creating something functional yet inventive by utilizing waste. Each object has been carefully designed to enhance the animated patterns of the plywood grain, creating fluidity in an otherwise solid material. It uses waste as a resource, which is abundant and inexpensive, unlike traditional raw materials.

The challenge, which we view more as an opportunity, is the raw material that we have committed to upcycle. The objects designed can only come to life if the size and grain of the waste plywood allow it. After designing the object and assessing the plywood available, similar-sized plywood pieces are formed into a monolithic block. This assembly process transforms the separate pieces into a fresh material that can be altered by the lathe. As it’s carved, unexpected possibilities emerge: the deliberate juxtaposition of varied cross-sectional grains produces the fluid, meandering patterns that define the collection.

SAGARIKA SURI, a practicing architect and urban designer in Mumbai, founded Studio Tessera in 2016. While the studio focuses on planning, architecture, and interior projects, Rockpaperscissors emerged as an extension of the practice in 2018. Sagarika believes that working across multiple scales simultaneously enriches both the project and the practice.
She completed her Bachelor of Architecture from CEPT, Ahmedabad in 2006, and earned an SMArchS (Master of Architecture) in Urbanism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, in 2011. Before establishing her own studio, she worked with Mumbai-based Malik Architecture and Delhi-based Stephane Paumier Architects on several large-scale housing and institutional projects.