Hydro 100R at Capsule Plaza
One of the standouts at Capsule Plaza’s impressive roster of brand activations, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company Hydro presented the ground-breaking installation 100R – a celebration of Hydro CIRCAL 100R, the world’s first recycled aluminium made entirely from post-consumer scrap on an industrial scale.
To showcase the vast possibilities of the material that can be endlessly recycled without any loss of quality, Hydro gathered a team of seven epic designers – chosen for their specific skill set and personality – to transform this revolutionary material into a series of slick objects and furniture pieces. In charge of art direction, concept and strategy for 100R, Lars Beller Fjetland enlisted the likes of Inga Sempé, Max Lamb, Andreas Engesvik, Shane Schneck, Rachel Griffin, John Tree and Philippe Malouin. Ten points from me all around.
Photos © Rui Wu, T-Space
Dzek x Christien Meindertsma ‘Flaxwood’
Dzek unveiled Flaxwood, a natural architectural tile derived from linseed oil, developed in collaboration with Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma, via a simple but powerful installation designed by Arquitectura-G. Flaxwood disrupts the traditional linoleum production mid process to create a more natural, three-dimensional expression of an inherently renewable, biodegradable material.
Mass-produced modern-day linoleum is a poster child for sustainable material innovation. Composed of 97% natural raw materials and 3% pigments, 62% of these are renewable, with the balance made up from recycling. Despite these admirable metrics, lino remains shockingly overlooked in favour of its cheap, petroleum-based imitator, vinyl. The two materials are commonly conflated as being similar due to linoleum’s vibrant colours and patterns perceived as being synonymous with the synthetic rather than the natural.
Flaxwood retools a 19th century innovation, moving away from synthetic aesthetics to present a new material language that can adequately respond to this moment.
‘As a designer, I’m interested in every phase a material travels through. How it grows, where its particles come from, and what it will become in its next life. By reconsidering historical production methods, we can imagine new vocabularies and the future for a material.’
Christien Meindertsma
Photos © Federico Ciamei.
Flax plant & wood flour, Courtesy of Dzek.
Hannes Peer & Van Den Weghe ‘The Clearing’
Belgian natural stone company Van Den Weghe’s Milan debut was unveiled via a collaboration with Hannes Peer Architecture. The synergy between the two entities gave rise to ‘The Clearing’, an installation that transcended creative boundaries.
Drawing on Martin Heidegger's philosophical insights, The Clearing represents the essential condition that allows light and shadow to manifest. Heidegger describes this concept as the sudden appearance of brightness that a traveller experiences while walking through a dense forest and reaching a clearing, where a vision opens up beyond the boundaries of the thick foliage.
The installation’s totemic travertine sculptures symbolised being and non-being, of the mater and ethereal. The intentional voids between these forms illuminating the ephemeral nature of existence and the continuum of being. Despite their apparent monolithic nature, the sculptures revealed high technical competence and deep artisanal wisdom, exhibiting the flexibility of travertine and marble through avant-garde finishes.
Photos © Danilo Pasquali.
‘A creative couple, whether their relationship is purely professional or extends to their private life, has to perfect the difficult art of dialogue and mediation to successfully combine the input of two different minds in a single design solution. To illustrate the exceptional versatility of Fenix, either alone or in combination with other materials, we decided to multiply the number of minds involved in the project to encourage lateral thinking and, consequently, double projects: in form, function, transformation.’
Federica Sala
Photos © Danilo Pasquali.
Fenix ‘Design Duo Double Feature’
Fenix’s ‘Design Duo Double Feature’, curated by Federica Sala, celebrated the concept of duality. Six pairs of designers – CARA \ DAVIDE, DWA Design Studio, Martinelli Venezia, Næssi Studio, mist-o, and Zanellato/Bortotto – were invited to create dual-use objects that combined Fenix materials with other surfaces produced by the group. The results were elegant and playful, highlighting the versatility of the material and objects themselves.
Photos © Claudia Zalla.
Alpi
Alpi unveiled new wood veneers, presenting the result of collaborations with GamFratesi, Konstantin Grcic, and Piero Lissoni, in an installation composed of soft volumes, wavy surfaces and curved geometric shapes entirely covered with veneers from its range.
Photos © Thomas Pagani.
Cimento
Under Patricia Urquiola's new creative leadership, Cimento showcased its unique, patented surface made from more than 90% mineral aggregates mixed with a cementitious binder. With different colours and finishes, Cimento’s Salone installation unveiled interior surfaces and design objects by BBA Studio, Defne Koz and Marco Susani, Elisa Ossino, Omri Revesz, Parisotto + Formenton, Studio 63, and Patricia Urquiola.
Photos © Silvia Rivoltella.
