Milan design week returned for another year presenting recyclable and sustainable innovations when designing with recycled aluminum.
The Norwegian company, Hydro, stood out with its 100R project, a collection of household objects made entirely from recycled aluminum. Hydro Circal 100R is the first aluminum product made 100% from reused scrap, and they have been able to demonstrate that the material can be transformed into new high-class products.
The show was curated by designer Lars Beller Fjetland, who challenged seven designers to express their own art with an aluminum low carbon footprint, less than 0.5 kg CO2e per kilo. Through Inga Sempé, Max Lamb, Andreas Engesvik, Shane Schneck, Rachel Griffin, John Tree and Philippe Malouin, showed the versatility of the product, which does not lose quality no matter how much it is continuously recycled.
Lars Beller Fjetland next to some of the pieces shown at the Milan Furniture Fair.
With this project, we recognize that we are moving into a future where using materials already in circulation is imperative for sustainable living and manufacturing,” explains Lars Beller Fjetland.
Hydro Circal 100R revolutionizes home design
Throughout the year 10 million tons of furniture are thrown away in Europe, and only 10 percent is recycled. Faced with this, Hydro makes visible the need to create objects with materials that can have second lives in an easy way. For the 100R exhibition, the Norwegian company’s experts and the chosen designers have worked together to materialize the ideas embodied in the plans.
It was liberating to give designers complete freedom to create virtually anything. And even more so to see our engineers help them realize their ideas, making products that are ready to go into production. -comments Forsback.
Innovation in lighting
Inga Sempé presented Grotte, a collection of table lamps using two profiles that fit together. The outer part protects the eyes from the light it emits, while the inner profile conceals the LED lights. His idea when designing was to create natural aspects, and not so typically geometric. These more atypical sketches have become lamps transformed into caves, where mysterious animals from prehistoric times reside.
From left to right: Tsuba by Andreas Engesvik and Grotte by Inga Sempé.
British designer Max Lamb explored curiosity and experimentation with his Prøve Light table lamp. Inspired by the aluminum extrusion process, Lamb wondered what would happen if an aluminum billet were heated almost to its melting point. From that question, Lamb has developed a lamp with two aluminum profiles connected. The object has small details that give it functionality, and in addition, a unique artistic presence to decorate.
Ease of material adaptation
Andreas Engesvik ventured to design a very functional object that we always depend on, Tsuba, a hanger with adjustable hangers. When devising and designing the coat rack, Engesvik was inspired by nature with the aim of showing naturalness, leaving behind the industrial style. The design of the coat rack provides depth and relief with its exterior that allows the height of the hangers to be adapted.
From left to right: Billet Chair by John Tree. T-Board, created by Philippe Malouin, a system for adapting shelving and furniture up to six meters.
To know the limits of a material, the essential thing is to try and make mistakes until you find the victory, and to explore in more detail, the designer John Tree used a 200mm press to create the Billet Chair. His creation was very ingenious, as one of the profiles was used to form the frame and legs, while the other profile was used to create the backrest and seat. From a single piece of aluminum he was able to shape a different chair.
Art objects far from common use
Another of the objects presented was by American designer Shane Schneck, who showed Nave, a series of containers that explore the duality between machines and “the strength of the human hand”. The designer highlights the ease of molding aluminum, and the good future for the industry to create shapes that were previously impossible to imagine;
From left to right: Shane Schneck’s Ship and Rachel Griffin’s Serial.
On the other hand, Rachel Griffin came up with Serial, a modular partition made of recycled aluminum extrusions that can be combined to create screens of any length. The profiles include integrated hinges, which allow the structures to be organized organically. In addition, the artist highlighted the collaboration with Hydro’s experts, as they were able to refine the objects and create them lighter.
