Reducing waste created by the industrial production and overproduction of virgin raw materials is a major preoccupation among professionals across different industries. Luckily, there are a few visionary design studios confronting this complex problem head-on and developing products geared towards the reduction of waste. Some of these studios are currently part of an exhibition focused on the design possibilities offered by waste.
In conjunction with the 3daysofdesign festival in Copenhagen, the Danish Architecture Center (DAC) is opening today an exhibition entitled "What a Waste".
The event is organized in collaboration with THE UP-CYCL, a groundbreaking B2B platform committed to harnessing the potential of New Waste generated by industries and promoting circular waste processes.
The term New Waste covers completely unused materials left over from large-scale production. Astonishingly, millions of tons of New Waste materials end up in landfills, without ever being used.
The exhibition (running through 29th October 2023) shines a spotlight on how waste materials from one production line can be ingeniously transformed into fresh products for other manufacturers.
In a press release, Rikke Ullersted, founder of THE UPCYCL, states: "The industrial sector produces enormous amounts waste to satiate our increasing consumption. Waste is piling up at landfills, and it’s a huge loss of valuable resources, as well as a waste of emissions."
The displays at the exhibition showcase a series of solutions: all the products on display are the result of a collaboration between a company or an independent design studio and a major industrial partner, participating in THE UPCYCL, that includes representatives from both heavy industry and development companies.
These partners offered the discarded or waste materials that were then transformed into new pieces and were given a second life as functional design objects: Anno Studio, for example, took cut-off sections of industrial trolleys in bright colours from Ravendo A/S and turned them into basic stools with a playful edge about them.
There is actually an entire section dedicated to stools, presenting 8 design companies showcasing 13 different designs for the same minimalist stool, each of them assembled with different waste materials.
Among the companies that designed stools there's also Mumutane, a home interior brand that combines Nordic aesthetics and vibrant African expression. The brand manufactures what they call "products with purpose", that is objects from wax print textile purchased from small, local textile shops in West Africa combined with high-quality wool-blended leftover textiles.
There's more to discover with flooring systems by WhyNature incorporating upcycled sorted-out wood pieces from industrial partner Wiking Golve: these pieces are usually discarded as they contain knots, but, employed as flooring tiles, they contribute to give a space a natural and "perfectly imperfect" touch. Mathias Falkenstrøm designed instead a shelving system with industrial partners JEVI, Racendo and VTI.
Falkenstrøm's design process always starts with the material: the designer so far created a variety of pieces from waste materials, such as the Tage Chair, an upcycle textile project for Uniqlo Denmark, and the Conscious chair and Table (originally designed by Børge Mogensen and Esben Klint) for Mater.
Visitors are encouraged to consider the transformative power of resourcefulness and discover a future where sustainability and creativity intertwine harmoniously, paving the way for a more enlightened and waste-free world.
But the exhibition also puts emphasis on the importance of partnerships forged between diverse entities, as exemplified by the collaboration between a design studio and an industrial company. This dynamic union demonstrates how combining expertise from different fields can yield responsible and innovative solutions for a more circular approach.
The event holds a significant place within the 3daysofdesign festival, which this year aptly focuses on the theme "Where Will We Be Without You". This theme highlights the interdependence between designers, producers, retailers, and customers alike, but also serves as a reminder to all of us, encouraging us to shift our gaze beyond individual interests and acknowledge that collaboration can push innovation and lead to unexpected results in many different fields.
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