Live from Milan: Here's a selection of pieces from the A Touch of Green exhibition by design collective Droog, which explores issues surrounding sustainability.
Breakfast with Pills by Jo Nakamura responds to the fact that many people now take dietary suppliments.
Cosy chair by Andreas Quednae and Sabine Müller of SMAQ is plugged into the central heating system and heats only the area of the room to be inhabited.
To make the Till Death Do Us Part table, Martino d'Esposito and Franck Bragigand have laser-engraved a contract into the surface of a second hand table.
By signing the contract the user promises to keep, use and take care of the table for the rest of their life.
Saving Grace lights by Adrien Rovero are designed specifically for energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Crystal Virus: massive infection by Pieke Bergmans is a series of vases made by glass blower Gert Bullée of Royal Leerdam Crystal, which have burned their traces into the wooden table while still hot.
Table tap by Arnout Visser is a small water pump for use at the table.
Here's some information about the exhibition from Droog:
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A touch of Green
In the footsteps of scientific researchers and opinion leaders, designers and manufacturers are also claiming sustainability. Droog has always focused on the mental or human side of product design, but there’s more. The presentation in Milan wants to inspire by providing sustainability from all kinds of angles. It will not be about pointing out an absolute answer.
What is perfect sustainability? Droog does not pretend to have found the key. We all know that it is a complex issue and to do right on the one hand, often means harmful consequences on the other. Like bio-fuel, which seems good for the environment but turns out to be devastating for food supplies. An awareness of the problem and its dualities has risen and its dynamics are the same in the field of design.
Does it help the environment to recycle a one day gathering of paper waste from the office into a resin treated piece of furniture? Maybe not literally, but the intention to limit waste is at least one step in the right direction.
The selection of designers who are presenting their work at Droog in Milan, each in their own way have reacted to ‘going green’: in classic shapes and with energy saving production techniques, such as the low-fire point porcelain by Minale-Maeda, by only heating SMAQ’s cosy chair, instead of heating the entire room and with Christien Meindertsma’s knitting work proving that industrial production does not exclude the strength of handicraft.
The relationship between people and products is almost like a ceremonial experience. Martino d’Esposito wants us to sign a contract, saying we won’t even try to get rid of our table. Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin thought of it as a perpetuated ritual, honoring the substance of things with a concrete and porcelain monument. It’s also a world of contradictions, with ugly pallets becoming the basic idea of beauty behind Gaële Girault’s interior objects and with discarded materials plaited in Martín Azúa’s fence making a scenery to enjoy.
Participating designers:
Martín Azúa, Pieke Bergmans, Jenny Bergström, Martino d’Esposito (ECAL) & Franck Bragigand, FormaFantasma – Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin, Gaële Girault (ECAL), Christien Meindertsma, Minale-Maeda, Jo Nakamura, Jens Praet, Tejo Remy, Tobias Rockenfeld, Adrien Rovero (ECAL), SMAQ – Andreas Quednau & Sabine Müller, Arnout Visser. Exhibition design by Marcel Schmalgemeijer.
Location:
Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
Foro Buonaparte 50
20121 Milan
Italy
April 16th – 20th 2008, during Salone del Mobile, Milan, Italy
Opening hours:
Wed – Sat: 11 – 21 hrs
Sun: 11 – 19 hrs
Closed on Monday