Winner: Sustainable design of the year 2021. Common Sands — Forite is a collection of recycled glass tiles made from the glass components found in discarded ovens and microwave ovens.

Common Sands is a prototype project to address both silicate scarcity and growing volumes of electronic waste,

Forite tiles have been developed in a collaboration between Studio Plastique, Snøhetta and Fornace Brioni as the result of more than 3 years of research and experimentation.

With the aim of creating sustainable, smart and refined architectural products, the project creates new value for an abundant yet unexploited group of materials.

Judges comments: "Studio Plastique has taken an underexplored waste stream and found a clever solution with wide-ranging applications in these glass tiles. The product takes a ubiquitous source of waste to which we can all relate. We pay for end of life disposal but these tiles fulfil a design-to-design loop that is rarely found in repurposed materials. The designers have upcycled unwanted glass into one of the kind palettes for a new generation of lifecycle to come."

Designer: Studio Plastique, Snøhetta and Fornace Brioni
Project: Common Sands: Forite Tiles