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Local art collective Xpan has created a multi-purpose creative studio called Xpan.Ep.1 in Mexico City using raw steel, aluminium, and transparent polycarbonate panels for its interior. More
More than 20 local designers worked to revamp sections of a sprawling modernist mansion in Mexico City around the theme of future houses during this year’s Design Week Mexico. More
Italian designer Martino Gamper has furnished an entire west London house with his eclectic designs for the exhibition Before, After and Beyond. More
New York gallery R & Company has curated collectible design work by 55 contemporary artists and designers based throughout the United States.
The exhibition Objects: USA 2024 is the second instalment in a series of triannual exhibits by the gallery surveying the current state of collectible design practices in the country.
The show touches on topics such as revived craft traditions, material experimentation, political instability, environmental degradation, and cultural re-appropriation.
R & Company has showcased 55 designers and artists from across the United States. Works by Dee Clements, Justin Favela, Luam Melake, and Coulter FussellDesigners that represent different generations and backgrounds are on show, including Minjae Kim, Chen Chen and Kai Williams, Roberto Lugo, Katie Stout, and Hugh Hayden.
“In recent years, collectible design has increasingly entered popular consciousness, in part, thanks to the diversity of individuals embracing handmade processes and propelling them in new directions,” R & Company said.
“Objects: USA offers an incisive exploration of the formal innovations and conceptual motivations that shape the distinct and varied landscape of today’s object-making.”
It was organised according to seven “archetypes”. Works by Trey Jones, Nicole McLaughlin, and Kim MupangilaïAccording to the gallery, many of the artists and designers defy easy categorisation and challenge the understood boundaries between art and design.
The show was guest-curated by writers and historians Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy and Kellie Riggs, who chose to present works thematically through several “archetypes.”
“After a long period of examining what we believe to be some of the most compelling work being made today, we took on the daunting but exciting task of finding the throughline between 55 unique practices,” Vizcarrondo-Laboy said.
“What emerged were seven archetypes that provide a dynamic way to explore object-making, not only within this group but also in the future.”
Designers and artists working across the United States were represented. Works at centre by Brian Oakes, Matthew Szösz, Carl D’Alvia, and Hugh HaydenThe groupings are organised under the headings Truthseekers, Codebreakers, Betatesters, Doomsdayers, Insiders, Keepers and Mediators.
Showcasing talents that uphold and find new purpose for long-established handicrafts, the Truthseekers section includes pieces by Los Angeles wood artist Nik Gelormino and New Mexico-based ceramicist Lonnie Vigil.
The exhibition was curated by Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy and Kellie Riggs. Works by Cammie Staros, Ryan Decker, Liam Lee, and Francesca DimattioThe Betatesters grouping presents artists and designers who experiment with these techniques and push the limits of material.
On view as part of this “archetype” is Houston designer Joyce Lin’s Wood Chair concept, which was created using MDF, epoxy, and oil paint. It shows her ongoing exploration of how the lines between what people think of as natural and artificial can be blurred.
The Doomsdayers section touches on how talents are addressing today’s political polarisation and dystopian angst.
The work under this dystopian heading includes Brooklyn-based designer Ryan Decker, who creates graphical works out of materials like fibreglass, resin, and aluminium – like Leaky Bladder – to comment on the rise of technologies like VR and the role video games play in our lives.
The groupings were chosen to showcase the wide scope of the collectible design world in the US. Works by Minjae Kim and Jolie NgoThe Insiders grouping explores how design can address domestic space and how that impacts the human experience, especially during the lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. Designers in this category included Hugh Hayden who presents “unexpected interventions” into everyday objects such as cribs.
Brooklyn-based Congolese-Belgian designer Kim Mupangilaï’s Bina daybed was grouped under the Codebreakers section. It demonstrates how designers incorporate distinct forms from different cultural sources.
“[Mupangilaï’s] distinct body of furniture is imbued with personal narratives, embracing materials symbolic of her Congolese heritage and childhood in Europe,” R & Company said. “Her elegant, organic forms reveal historical and contemporary complexities of identity and experience as the viewer revels in the details.”
The Keepers section includes one-off designs, sculptures, and installations by artists and designers that utilise these mediums to explore how people establish cultural and interpersonal connections.
The Mediator “archetype” highlights designs used to help people negotiate with their surroundings and heritage – such as those by Chicago-based Norman Teague.
“Norman Teague’s multi-faceted practice [architecture, installation, and object design] is inspired by his Chicago South Side neighbourhood and broader African aesthetics,” R & Company said.
The works range from futuristic to traditional. Works by Misha Kahn, Venancio Aragon, and Ryan DeckerMade using ebony-finished basswood and leather as well as traditional carving and stitching techniques, the Africana Rocking Chair combines references to both his Western and African upbringings but Teague distils them in a contemporary form.
Also exhibited as part of the Mediator section, Las Vegas-based artist Justin Favela re-appropriates the piñata as an important symbol of Latinx identity in both still-life paintings and painted life-size objects such as low-rider bikes.
Bright colours were used for backdrops. Work by Nicki GreenAccording to Riggs, the idea was to use these groupings as a way of highlighting the full complexity of American collectible design and offer fresh insights on how conceptual and self-expressive objects fit in the larger cultural conversation; how these designs can be both functional and used to comment on different aspects of contemporary American society.
The photography is by Logan Jackson.
Objects: USA 2024 is on show from 6 September 2024 to 10 January 2025 in New York City. For more exhibitions, talks and fairs in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.
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This space with futuristic “virtual reality” style LED strip lighting was designed by Argentinian firm Estudio Ebras and furniture brand Hause Möbel to be used as both a home and an office.
The temporary Green Home Office project was created for the Casa FOA 2024 architecture and design exhibition in Córdoba, Argentina, inside an under-construction building complex named Pocito.
At the Green Home Office, an immersive workspace features a grid of LED lights to mimic a virtual reality environmentEstudio Ebras was presented with a windowless space to transform into a flexible environment designed to facilitate both living and working, using furniture from Argentinian brand Hause Möbel.
Entry to the 110-square-metre space was through a low, warmly lit antechamber that offered options to turn left into a compact workspace, or right into the larger central area.
Entry to the exhibition was via a compressed, warmly lit antechamberThe dark, “immersive” office was panelled with wood veneer squares between strips of LED light that formed a grid across the walls and floor.
“The immersive space features a luminous grid that simulates the grid of virtual reality,” said Estudio Ebras. “On one side is a desk, and on the other, a chaise lounge for resting and transporting us to a natural environment in virtual reality.”
The space was divided into the immersive office and a larger room decorated in desert huesReached via a short cork-floored corridor, the living space featured peach, orange and rust hues that created a contrasting desert-like aesthetic.
“Upon entering the central area, a change in scale is perceived due to its dimensions and height,” Estudio Ebras said.
The larger space was designed for both living and working, and echoes the desert-like climate of CórdobaIn place of windows, the designers worked with a light artist to install illuminated, elongated pill-shaped panels behind translucent floor-to-ceiling curtains.
The light panels displayed sunset colours, while soil and dried plants ran around the perimeter to evoke “a mountainous, wild, and arid landscape typical of the area”.
Suspended over a dining or meeting table was a light fixture with rings of LEDs insideCurved-edge surfaces flowed into one another, such as a kitchen counter that swooped down from one wall and extended along another.
In the centre of the room was a large table that could be used for either dining or meetings, accompanied by four orange chairs on castors.
A separate space with sliding glass partitions was intended for video calls or quiet contemplationOverhead, a rough-textured fixture housed concentric rings of LEDs that gradually ascended inside the structure.
At the end of the room, a bench was suspended from the ceiling, shaped to frame the trio of “window” lights behind.
Eight home offices with stylish set-ups for remote working
A separate space for quiet contemplation or taking video calls was tucked behind the entry corridor wall and closed off by sliding glass panels.
This small room was lined with cork and furnished with a purple two-seater sofa. “The acoustic box allows for privacy to make a call, work with a laptop, or, within a home-like setting, provides recreational space,” said Estudio Ebras.
The installation also included a bench that hung from the ceilingAs the project’s name suggests, it was designed with sustainability in mind, and a carbon footprint analysis was conducted throughout the design, exhibition and dismantling processes.
To offset the installation’s footprint, native trees were planted in nearby Cerro Champaquí with the help of local nonprofit organization Fundación Sembradores de Agua.
In place of windows, panels illuminated to mimic a sunset were installed behind translucent curtainsRecently completed projects in Córdoba include a house with weathering steel screens, a home lifted above a sloped site and an office building wrapped in perforated metal.
The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.
Casa FOA 2024 took place 3 May to 2 June 2024 in Córdoba. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.
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Interior design studio Linehouse has renovated an office in Shanghai using numerous materials and art from a local gallery.
Linehouse refurbished the ground floor of a three-storey building in Shanghai that The Independents global marketing group have occupied in Shanghai for numerous years.
The office is located in a three-storey building in ShanghaiThe 374-square-metre space was designed as a communal area for the staff working on the floors above.
It includes a reception area, meeting rooms, pantry and communal eating space as well as a flexible deskspace for twenty people.
Metal curtains are used to blur the boundary between different functional spacesAdditionally, an art installation area has been integrated, taking advantage of the high lofty ceiling of the space, which will be used for monthly rotational curation.
Linehouse aimed to create a destination by presenting art from a local gallery, which will be rotated monthly, in the space. Combined with numerous materials and abstract furniture pieces, the studio forms what the studio called an “unexpected collection”.
The entrance features a circular seating installation wrapped in metal curtain”The support of the client to design an office that pairs unexpected combinations of materials was refreshing and a challenge,” said Linehouse.
“The result is a space that allows art to breathe and creates a welcoming, natural and open place of work.”
The workstations are located in a sunken seating areaThe spaces are each defined by different materials. Marine plywood was used for the wall of the reception and pantry area, separating them from the meetings rooms. The same plywood was used for to the workstations located in a sunken seating area.
A circular seating area was wrapped in a metal curtain, with five-meter-high curtains used to divide other spaces.
Linehouse transforms Shanghai swimming pool into office space
A customised table, made from different shaped pieces of marble and laminates, is used for meetings and dining.
Other tables in the meeting room features unique surfaces — one being a patchwork of timber textures and the other a gradient of glass transparency, from solid black to transparent.
“The design challenges the traditional notion of an office to promote a healthier and creative mindset to collaboration and communication, with emphasis on openness and autonomy for how staff use and occupy the spaces,” Linehouse concluded.
Marine plywood is used on the walls of the pantryLinehouse is a Hong Kong and Shanghai-based architecture and interior design studio established in 2013 by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling.
The duo won the emerging interior designer of the year category at the 2019 Dezeen Awards.
Meeting rooms feature custom made tablesThe studio has also recently designed a greenhouse-informed food market in Shanghai and the facade of a shopping centre in Bangkok.
The photography is by Dirk Weiblen.
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Architecture historian Adam Štěch highlights ten images from his recent exhibition Elements: Unique Details of the 20th Century Architecture and Interior and explains the stories behind them.
The exhibition brought together an edited selection of nearly 3,000 photographs from Štěch’s archive of buildings and interiors and their bespoke details.
Elements: Unique Details of the 20th Century Architecture and Interior was created for Milan design week and provided a welcome respite from the week’s influx of new products.
It was displayed in one of the previously abandoned warehouse tunnels behind Milan Central Station, as part of the Dropcity series of exhibitions.
Over more than 15 years, Štěch estimates he has photographed about 7,000 projects in 45 countries, capturing buildings and interiors that were completed between 1910 and 1980.
“It’s hard to count them all,” Štěch told Dezeen when asked how many photographs are in the ever-evolving archive.
Eight Alastair Philip Wiper photographs that turn architecture into fantasy
For this exhibition, he focused on ten specific elements from his archive, grouped according to certain details ranging from entrances, windows and handrails to furniture, lighting, fireplaces and surfaces.
“All of these elements were created by architects as one-of-a-kind and bespoke design solutions for specific houses and buildings all around the world,” Štěch said.
“The ultimate selection of elements celebrate the modernist idea of the total work of art, the so-called Gesamtkunstwerk, and tell stories about the versatile skills of modernist architects from Art Nouveau to modernism and beyond.”
The paper-printed photos in the exhibition were folded simply over an aluminium construction, making the show quick to assemble and lightweight and compact to transport.
“The images were freely divided into typological sections in which visitors could explore various formal similarities and analyse modernist architecture in its differences and transformations,” explained Štěch.
“My ambition for this project is to create the biggest database of one-of-a-kind designs from specific buildings and interiors captured by a single person and survey a never before seen chapter in the history of applied art.”
Below, Štěch highlights ten featured photographs, one from each of the typological sections of the exhibition:
Schlegel and Brunhammer Apartment by Valentine Schlegel, Paris, France, 1970s
“Valentine Schlegel’s vases from the 1950s are among the pinnacle of French post-war artistic ceramics. Despite the fact that her work was largely forgotten, interest in her has increased again recently.
“I visited her own apartment and studio in Paris, which she shared with her friend Yvonne Brunhammer, writer, curator and director of Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. I was there just a few weeks before its interior was completely emptied and sold at auction.
“Designed during the 1970s, her apartment and studio were conceived as an artificial cave, organically modelled by plaster. It was created at the time when she specialised in designing private apartment interiors, which she transformed into organically shaped spaces. I was amazed by the leather-covered door she designed for the space.”
Grand Hotel Minerva by Carlo Scarpa and Edoardo Detti, Florence, Italy, 1957-1964
“If you talk to architects, many are celebrating Carlo Scarpa as an ‘architect of the detail’. It is also why I focused on his work and have visited almost all of his projects.
“The one which is not so well known is the Grand Hotel Minerva in Florence, which he designed together with the architect Edoardo Detti. The hotel is located in the historical building close to Santa Maria Novella church.
“The architects created public spaces spread around the external patio which you can look at through this exceptional double window. I enjoyed an amazing breakfast there while photographing this great detail of Scarpa’s.”
Chamber of Commerce, Work and Industry by Jože Plečnik, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1925-1927
“Two years ago I was commissioned to photograph a collection of Jože Plečnik’s buildings in Ljubljana.
“This was an amazing opportunity to experience the work of Plečnik who I find to be one of the most important European architects for his ability to combine all historical architectural styles together with absolutely original results.
“This staircase and metal handrail is located inside Plečnik’s first project after he came back to Ljubljana from his stay in Prague. This robust metal handrail beautifully shows Plečnik‘s sensitive approach to details and his skills with metal craft.”
Casa Carcano by Ico and Luisa Parisi, Maslianico, Italy, 1949-1950
“It took me more than two years before I was finally able to arrange a visit to the unique Casa Carcano designed by my absolutely favourite Italian architects and designers Ico and Luisa Parisi.
“They built it near the famous Lake Como in 1949-1950 at the beginning of their rich career. Parisi was born in Palermo, Sicily in 1916 and settled in Como in the 1930s. Together with his wife Luisa, they designed exceptional houses from the late 1940s to the 1970s.
“I have already visited five of them since 2011. Casa Carcano is their early masterpiece with much bespoke furniture including this wonderful built-in sofa in the middle of the stairs, which is housed in the spectacular entrance hall.”
Former Czechoslovak Embassy in New Delhi by Karel Filsak, Karel Bubeníček, Zdeněk Dvořák, Jan Kozel, Karel Filsak and Zbyněk Hřivnáč, India, 1966-1974
“As my diploma project at the Art History department at the Charles University in Prague, I focused on the work of interior designer Zbyněk Hřivnáč. He collaborated with the best of Czech architects during the socialist time from the 1950s to 1980s, designing mostly bespoke interior furnishings.
“These projects included Czechoslovakian embassies all around the world. Back in my student years, I did not have any chance to travel to see these buildings. Finally, now I have resources that allow me to travel worldwide.
“I was finally able to visit two of the Czechoslovakian embassies (now divided into Czech and Slovak) in Cairo and New Delhi. The one in India is an amazing brutalist building with all of the original furnishing details still preserved.
“Hřivnáč also designed this series of wooden lamps including balloon shades.”
The Box by Ralph Erskine, Lovön, Sweden, 1941-1942
“Not far from the Drottningholm Royal Castle on the island of Lovön near Stockholm, there is a miniature house that Ralph Erskine built as a starter home in the early 1940s. Its architecture is synonymous with frugality and minimalism.
“If you want to see Ralph Erskine’s house, you must first pick up the keys at the reception of the ArkDes architecture centre in Stockholm. After paying the deposit, they will entrust you with the keys and you have nothing else to do but go to the island of Lovön and open this unique house yourself.
“I did the same to visit this masterpiece by the famous Swedish-British architect who was a pioneer of Scandinavian modernism. He designed this organic fireplace as a centrepiece of the minimal functional interior.”
Bossard House (Kunststätte Bossard) by Johann Michael Bossard, Jesteburg, Germany, 1911-1950
“One of my many specific interests with 20th-century architecture is totally-designed interior environments. These are spaces where all the surfaces are given the attention of the designer.
“This kind of interior can often be found in Germany. They were created by artists influenced by the expressionist movement, very often by painters or sculptors and not architects.
“This is also the case of Johann Michael Bossard who created his own world in the middle of forests in Jesteburg, close to Hamburg. His own house is completely painted inside by mixing mythology and his original visions of the future. I called these interiors ‘3D paintings’.”
Maison Wogenscky by André Wogenscky and Marta Pan, Saint-Rémy-Lès-Chevreuse, France, 1952
“I was desperate to visit this house, built near Paris by Le Corbusier’s disciple André Wogenscky and his wife, sculptor Marta Pan.
“Despite the house only opening to the public a few times a year, it was one of the most challenging visits because I did not get any answer from the foundation for years. Finally, I made it there in 2022.
“The bathroom, with the beautiful mosaic-clad curve, presents the essence of postwar French interior design.”
Girard House by Wolfgang Ewerth, Casablanca, Morocco, 1954
“Casablanca boasts a rich collection of art deco architecture, as well as modernist and brutalist. That’s why I decided to go there in 2019. With the help of architects from preservation group Mamma, I was able to visit some exceptional houses.
“Originally German architect Wolfgang Ewerth was a follower of progressive modernist tendencies after the second world war and built several remarkable villas in Casablanca. I was lucky enough to visit House Girard, which Ewerth completed in 1955.
“The spacious terraces, glass facades and open living space stand in bold comparison with the best contemporary examples of Californian modernism by Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano or Craig Elwood, who, like Ewerth, used simple steel frames to allow for freely articulated interiors.
“But unlike his American colleagues, Ewerth also designed more sculptural features including this massive boomerang-like planter.”
University Library by Henry Lacoste, Leuven, Belgium, 1948
“Last summer I had the chance to stay for three weeks in Belgium, supported by the Czech Centre in Brussels. I took advantage of this and visited dozens of Belgian modernist houses and interiors. Every day I woke up very early, travelling to different Belgian cities and documenting marvels of Belgian architecture and design.
“Hidden behind the historical neo-Renaissance facade of the monumental Leuven University Library is the main reading room, which was one of my intended destinations.
“It is a perfectly carved interior treasure, created by Belgian architecture legend Henry Lacoste after the second world war when the library was completely destroyed for the second time. The space is full of sculptural details and symbolic motives carved into oak, including this monumental wall clock.”
The photography is by Adam Štěch. Main image by Piercarlo Quecchia.
Elements: Unique Details of the 20th Century Architecture and Interior was on show as part of Dropcity during Milan design week from 12 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour is hosting the third edition of Wow!house, a purpose-built showhome in London exhibiting works by international designers, as seen in this video produced by Dezeen for the interiors hub.
Designers were invited to showcase their designs in separate rooms of the house over which they are given complete creative control.
Wow!house 2024 is held at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour and features 19 rooms by international designersThere are 19 custom rooms in total at Wow!house, including a study by Anahita Rigby and a Zimmer + Rohde bedroom by Tolu Adẹ̀kọ́.
“It’s about accessing all of these creatives under one roof,” says Claire German, CEO of Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour in the exclusive Dezeen video interview.
The Home Bar was created by OZA Design and draws inspiration from Western and Eastern culturesThe Home Bar was designed by OZA Design with the aim of bringing together Western and Eastern cultures.
“We wanted the guests to come on a journey… like on the Orient Express,” said OZA Design’s Alexandre Simeray.
The Zimmer + Rohde Bedroom Suite was designed by Adẹ̀kọ́ & Co. Studio.
“We want it to take guests away from what would be the normal, expected bedroom and create something quite… unusual,” said the studio’s founder Tolu Adẹ̀kọ́.
The Zimmer + Rohde Bedroom Suite was created by London-based designer Tolu Adẹ̀kọ́”Exhibiting at Wow!House means a great deal to me personally,” he went on to explain.
“Being the first British-Nigerian designer selected to work on the space and to show the public what could be done from a small studio based in southeast London.”
The House of Rohl Primary Bathroom features a painted landscape above a circular bath tubA large circular bath takes centre stage in the House of Rohl Primary Bathroom by Michaelis Boyd, which sits within an alcove with a painted dome on top.
The Study was designed by Anahita Rigby and fuses Georgian and Japanese design principles.
The Study at Wow!house features Georgian and Japanese aestheticsRigby mentioned that she was inspired by the objects people bring home from their travels abroad.
“Falling in love with something on holiday and bringing it home and it’s your new favourite thing you put on your mantelpiece… it’s what interiors are all about,” said Rigby.
German cites the “incredible” level of detail in each room, noting that the importance of the ceiling continued as a theme throughout the home. “The designers have used it as the fifth wall,” she explained.
Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour to host WOW!house 2024
Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour has stated that the materials used throughout the home will be repurposed, or returned whenever possible, while rooms such as the Martin Moore kitchen will be re-installed in a new location after the event.
There will be a programme of events, including tours of WOW!house, open to the public until 4 July 2024.
WOW!house runs from 4 June to 4 July 2024 at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour in London. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Partnership content
This video was produced by Dezeen for the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.
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As part of 3 Days of Design, Danish practice Natural Material Studio has created a futuristic fossil-free home interior where all the elements, from the curtains to the sofa, are made from the same bioplastic.
White Utopia is Natural Material Studio’s most ambitious installation to date, adapting the studio’s Procel bioplastic to form massive functioning furniture pieces across three separate rooms – a dining room, a lounge and a bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe.
The White Utopia installation includes a lounge (top image) and dining room (above)The exhibition envisions a future where our homes are made entirely using biomaterials like this, which can be endlessly remade into new products and backyard composted at the end of their life, rather than ending up in landfill.
“The installation has for sure been the most challenging to date due to the complexity in scale and the three-dimensionality of the whole ‘house’,” studio founder Bonnie Hvillum told Dezeen. “You can really start to see how we can live with these new materials.”
Every element down to the lampshades is made from Procel bioplasticNatural Material Studio initially developed Procel as a flexible biotextile, used to form everything from clothes to curtains. But recently, the studio started experimenting with adapting its recipe to create whole load-bearing furniture pieces.
The core ingredient is a specific – although nondisclosed – natural protein, which Hvillum says can be derived from either plants or animals.
Among the larger pieces is a monobloc biofoam sofa”It’s very much used in the medical industry, also in bookbinding,” said the designer, who sources her protein from different suppliers across Europe.
“It’s used in many different places,” she added. “But when I called them and said ‘can you figure out a way of supplying this to me’, they were like ‘okay, we’ve never had this question before’.”
The installation also features a bedroom with a walk-in wardrobeTo create Procel, this natural protein is mixed with a small amount of chalk for strength and a natural softener made from plant oils for flexibility.
Combined in different rations and cast into different moulds, this mixture was used to create not just the textile room dividers found in White Utopia but an entire bio-foam sofa for the living room, stools for the dining area and a giant platform bed that visitors were encouraged to sit on.
Natural Material Studio creates restaurant panels from leftover beer
By taking out the softener, Natural Material Studio was also able to create more rigid pieces, including a dining table that was originally cast as a simple rectangle but deformed into a more organic shape as it dried.
“The presented design objects are really pushing the possibilities of these materials,” Hvillum said. “Opening the door to making them structural is a completely new route for us.”
“I think it holds so much potential, creating materials that resemble polystyrene and vacuum-formed plastics.”
Visitors were encouraged to sit on the bioplastic bedFurnituremakers including Isomi and Natuzzi have already started experimenting with using natural latex as an alternative to traditional polyurethane upholstery foam, as the plastic is hard to recycle and contains toxic chemicals.
Hvillum argues that Procel could offer another promising alternative, as it can be endlessly recast to form new products or simply buried outside in the garden, where it will degrade within a month.
“We are basically investigating fluidity,” Hvillum said. “So everything is in motion and things can move on to have another life. ”
“This is how we envision the future to be.”
Procel biotextiles were also used to form wall coveringsProcel has already made it out into the real world with clients including Calvin Klein and Copenhagen restaurant ÅBEN.
A collaboration with a Spanish luxury fashion house is also in the works, despite the brand being weary of using animal-derived protein.
However, Hvillum argues that animal polymers can actually be more sustainable than their vegan counterpart because they are made from waste residues from the meat industry.
The dining table deformed as it dried”When we work with animal-based materials, we can actually tap into a waste flow so we work with second-generation materials,” she explained. “Whereas when we work with plant materials, we work with virgin materials.”
“Sustainability is a lot more complex than just: is it animal or is it vegan,” she added. “It’s more about: what sources can we reuse from so that we keep things in a circular loop.”
The photography is by Peter Vinther.
White Utopia was part of 3 Days of Design, which took place at venues across Copenhagen from 12 to 14 June. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
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