Life Matter at Next Habitat, Milan Life Matter at Next Habitat, Milan
Life Matter at Next Habitat, Milan Life Matter at Next Habitat, Milan
Current Alchemy at Next Habitat, Milan Current Alchemy at Next Habitat, Milan
Current Alchemy at Next Habitat, Milan Current Alchemy at Next Habitat, Milan

Precious resources

04 : 05 : 2015 Master Of Interior Architecture & Retail Design : Piet Zwart Institute : Current Alchemy

Milan – Exhibition Next Habitat explored the untapped potential of everyday materials.

  • Projects addressed our relationship with energy, life and the environment
  • They tackled issues like sell-by-dates, inheritance, waste allocation and the meaning of 'precious'

In the future, materials that exist as a surplus today might be rare. Exploring the temporality of materials as well as the inherent inefficiencies in our consumer culture, designers from the Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute created a series of projects repurposing common materials and abundant energies into precious artefacts.

Two of our favourites were Current Alchemy, a project which turned piezo electricity into crystals, and Radio Killed The Electric Star, a wireless lamp that harnessed the electromagnetic fields around us. ‘We wanted to explore the concept of electricity as a handmade product,’ Current Alchemy’s creators Julia Schostak and Pawel Szubert told LS:N Global. ‘And in doing so we created a new precious material.’

The Big Picture: It's time to embrace the anthropocene. Our Whole-system Thinking macrotrend explores how technology is affording new possibilities from abundant materials. Brands need to think on a planetary scale if they want to remain relevant.

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