hile paper was no doubt a life-altering material when the Chinese invented it during the Han Dynasty, its ubiquitous nature today means it's about as exciting as a macaroni noodle. So when Mailingtage 2013, a direct-mail and direct-marketing trade show in Nurnberg, Germany, asked Ueberholz GmbH to create an exhibit to pay homage to paper, designers were left scratching their noodles. "We had to make a flat, static material come to life," said designer Andre Fuesser. "So we decided to use wood and paper in various forms to elicit a sensory response."

Sitting atop a raised, unfinished, wooden floor, three 14.5-foot-tall walls defined the minimalist space. Comprising aluminum supports and fluorescent light tubes sandwiched between frosted-glass panes, the walls drew visitors like termites to fresh pine. While all walls bore the words "Papier Mit Allen Sinnen" (i.e., "Paper With All Your Senses"), the back wall also featured thought-provoking phrases, which translated into queries such as, "Does it sound like passion?" "Smell like happiness?" "Taste like transparency?" Below the text, paper strips offered one-of-a-kind prints and mesh-like textures that cried out for attendee contact.

Meanwhile, a desk-like element on the left of the space and a 16-foot-long, waist-high table on the right both comprised corrugated cardboard sheets joined to form solid structures. Atop the corrugated desk sat an ingenious book made of handmade paper. But instead of the book's contents being printed on the paper, a device suspended above projected a video onto its open pages. While paper-related text and images were intermixed throughout the video, the unorthodox sounds that comprised its background music were created by people manipulating paper bags. Hailed by judges as "Haltingly simple yet utterly sophisticated," the design was the perfect mix of pulp and paper, as well as power and passion.