Dezeen promotion: sustainable designs from Rossana Orlandi's Ro Plastic Prize competition will be exhibited at Istituto Marangoni London as part of this year's London Design Festival.
The works of winning designer Alexander Schul and other emerging creatives will be displayed at the exhibition, alongside pieces by renowned Italian architect Piero Lissoni and contemporary designer James Shaw.
The Guiltless Plastic exhibition will be held from 19 to 22 September at Istituto Marangoni London, located in the heart of Shoreditch.
The Ro Plastic Prize competition was launched as part of gallerist and design curator Orlandi's Guiltless Plastic initiative, which aims to change the perception of plastic and ensure the material is used responsibly.
Held earlier this year at Milan design week, the second edition of this competition again challenged designers to develop new ways of recycling and reusing plastic.
Schul won the design category of the contest with his Substantial furniture collection, comprising a chair, a lamp and a side table all made entirely from recycled plastic.
The German designer created each piece using sheets of high-impact polystyrene. The designs are intended to be universal, practical and easily manufacturable on a large scale, using efficient production methods.
The London exhibition will also include designs from other emerging talents including Sanne Schuurman, Federica Cammarota, Dylan Casasnovas, Miloš Ristin, Joseph André Szall, Massimiliano Adami, Ruben Carboni and Bailey Allan Fontaine.
The recycled plastic shingles designed by Overtreders W and Bureau SLA, which were used to build a temporary pavilion for Dutch Design Week 2017, will also feature in the show.
Each of the works offers a solution on how to process plastic waste in a more cost, time, and energy efficient way, and demonstrates the imaginative possibilities of fully recyclable materials.
Some designs also explore how to return contaminated plastics into the production cycle, as well as other innovative ideas such as creating outdoor bins from beach plastic waste or speakers from recycled plastic.
Each of the pieces that will be exhibited at the London school have been selected by Orlandi and Mark Anderson, director of education at Istituto Marangoni Milan.
During the design week, the school will also host a conversation between Rossana Orlandi and Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, centred on the topic of "The Future of Plastic".
"This wonderful moment enables our beautiful London School to host exciting new conceptual design, curated and debated by a true leader of design innovation, Rossana Orlandi," said Charlotte Gorse, director of the London School.
"Our contribution to Shoreditch in the London Design Festival seeks to bring the best of the Salone del Mobile debate and thinking."
Orlandi, an Istituto Marangoni alumna, launched the Guiltless Plastic project, formerly named Guilty Feeling, in 2017 in a bid to encourage a more sustainable approach to design by giving new life to plastic.
Over 300 applicants from 50 different countries took part in the Ro Plastic Prize competition. Entries were judged by an international jury, which included Fairs, trend forecaster Li Edelkoort and Google's head of hardware design Ivy Ross.
"As the sole educational partner for the prize, Istituto Marangoni has supported this project both in its launch in Milan and now for the first London edition, reflecting the school drive and belief in environmental design, now, more urgent than ever," said Istituto Marangoni.
More information about the exhibition can be found on the London Design Festival website.