Young designers show paper glasses and aluminium-foam lightbulbs in Milan
Emerging designers explored sustainability and everyday designs for the Shared Matter exhibition at Milan design week, which had a focus on international collaboration.
On show inside the pastel-blue gallery of Spaziovento in Milan's central Brera district, Shared Matter opened with a ceiling-hung installation of the Re27 lightbulb by Paris and Lausanne-based Iiode.
Made partly out of aluminium foam from recycled cans, the lightbulb was designed to be more sustainable than regular LED lights. Its design also creates better light quality, according to Iiode co-founder Patrick Morris.
"It has better colours and more stable flickering," Morris told Dezeen.
"When you dim a light, often you're phase-cutting the circuit, meaning that it might turn it on and off," he added. "It's gonna stay off for a long time, so you will probably notice some vibration and flicker."
Also on the technology and product design side of the exhibition was Akuto Studio's Chord Machine AKT-0.1, which was produced in China and designed to create "new ways to play chords", according to the company.
The sleek screen and keyboard have a minimalist design, informed by the work of German designer Dieter Rams, and can be connected to a phone or laptop to let users freely create tracks.
Other designers worked with organic materials, including Vera Roggli and Julia Villamonte, whose multifunctional Sapin-Sapin mat was handwoven from leaves of the karagumoy plant in the Philippines.
"It's based on a culturally significant object in the Philippines, which is the banig," Villamonte told Dezeen. "You can even find it in the Philippines now, it is still being used to sleep on."
Roggli and Villamonte's take on the mat can function as a mat or a hanging room divider, or be combined with a thin mattress to form an adaptable seat.
"[We wanted to] adapt it more for contemporary living and to be more comfortable as well," Villamonte said. She worked with weavers during a research trip to the Philippines to learn how to do the weaving and source the material.
In the same room, German designer Silvio Rebholz showed his Paper Glasses, designed as a "natural and sustainable alternative" to reusable plastic cups.
Made from 3D-moulded paper covered in beeswax, the biodegradable glasses were developed in collaboration with makers in Yunnan, China. Their elegant shapes, which include a stemmed version, make them resemble a hybrid paper-glass design.
Also on show at Shared Matter were product designer Noelani Rutz's Fleeting Landscape tiles, which were developed with Japan's Tajimi Custom Tiles and capture the shapes of snow.
Design duo Panter & Tourron, meanwhile, revealed its Hall Lamp made from extruded aluminium pipe and decorated with graduated colours at Shared Matter, which was presented by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in partnership with Presence Switzerland.
In the last room, a cafe space invited visitors to rest on seating designed by furniture brand Karimoku, painted in a matching pale hue to the walls.
In recent roundups from Milan design week, we picked our favourite grassroots shows and furniture and lighting designs.
The photography is by Agnese Bedini.
Shared Matter was on show during Milan design week on 20 to 24 April. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
The post Young designers show paper glasses and aluminium-foam lightbulbs in Milan appeared first on Dezeen.
