MaterialDistrict

What not to miss at the Milan Design Week 2018 (part 1)

The Milan Design Week is the most famous design event in the world. This year, the event will take place from 17 to 22 April. For your convenience, Materia has listed some interesting material highlights! Today, part 1 (part 2, part 3). 

Human Nature, designing the equilibrium
Under the title Human Nature, designing the equilibrium, eleven Dutch designers and brands answer questions about a future in which Humankind and Nature enter into a new relationship. This theme seems to be made for designers from a country that was once under water. The way in which designers see the future says a great deal about Dutch design culture and how it relates to the issues humanity is facing. Besides the live interviews on 19 April, the work is exhibited during the entire week. The event is hosted by Connecting the Dots & Creative Holland.

For Human Nature, Materia has selected the most appealing and current examples from its international material collection as an example of how Dutch designers are working hard on the challenge to use materials as efficiently as possible. Each of these examples can be used in the products and buildings of the future, with the aim to make the world a more beautiful, more sustainable and a better place.

You can see Materia’s own Els Zijlstra on 19 April during her interview in the Nhow Hotel!

Shift
Benjamin Hubert of design studio LAYER teamed up with Danish company Kvadrat. Using Kvadrat’s textile board, which is made from end-of-life fabrics from fashion and textile industries, Hubert created an acoustic wall panel that can be turned into a shelf system used for display and storage. The flexible system, called Shift, uses no screws or bolts in its construction and can be adapted to different scenarios.

In addition, Really and Kvadrat invited Raw-Edges Design Studio, Front, Christien Meindertsma, Jo Nagasaka, Claesson Koivisto Rune and Jonathan Olivares to create projects with Solid Textile Board and Acoustic Textile Felt.

3D Housing 05
Engineering firm Arup and architecture studio CLS Architetti, Italcementi Heidelberg Cement Group and Cybe team up to 3D print a one-bedroom house at the Milan Design Week, which is said to be “Europe’s first 3D printed one-bedroom house”. The house, called 3D Housing 05 is a single storey home of 100 square metres (1076 square feet), and will contain four rooms: a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom.

The concrete house is currently being 3D printed at Piazza Cesare Beccaria. After the Milan Design Week, it will be dismounted and relocated elsewhere.

Kodai Iwamoto
Japanese designer Kodai Iwamoto turns commonly available, cheap plastic pipes into vases using glass blowing techniques.

The pipes are slowly heated until the material is soft and mouldable. The pipe is then put in a mould, where it is hand-blown. As with glass blowing, the shape of the mould, the air-pressue and the speed of heating the pipe effects the shape of the object.

The collection will be exhibited as part of Ventura Future from 17 to 22 April in Milan.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Milan Design Week series!

Photos: Materia / LAYER (via Designboom) / 3D Housing 05 / Kodai Iwamoto (via Designboom)

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