Moving full circle
Moving full circle.
By Claire Menzies, Chairwoman, Istoria Group
First published: IFJ - the Indian review of world furniture, interiors and design
Image: Reiss Dendie
When it comes to sustainability, some designers and architects are already committed, whilst others simply follow legal requirements. Many more would like to push ahead further but are unsure how to go about it. Within the group of creative companies I chair, we’re certainly at the pro-active end of this.
Our exhibitions agency Ignition, for example, was founded to counter the events industry’s incredibly wasteful ‘build and burn’ culture and is now a pioneer of flexible and modular exhibition kits, which clients can use re-use over a long period of time in a huge number of different configurations.
Our design consultancy Phoenix Wharf, meanwhile, actively seeks to re-cycle furniture or reveal original surfaces in its projects, such as in a recent restaurant project in Bristol, featuring refurbished furniture and original wall tiles from when the space was once a butcher’s shop.
Image: Pigsty, designed by Phoenix Wharf (part of Istoria Group)
As we move beyond the Covid-19 era, I believe we should embrace the messages the world has given us this year about our connectivity to nature. This terrible virus, along with the forest fires in Australia, the Amazon, the USA and also in India, has demonstrated our vulnerability in the face of natural occurrences and shown us how much more respect we should be showing the planet. If there ever was a time to strive to do more, it’s now!
As well as committing to sustainability via carbon neutrality, re-planted timber, low energy use and so on, we should be pushing towards the ambitions of the circular economy too.
This is about extending the life of products we design and use so there is never any waste - not just cradle-to-grave products but cradle-to-cradle.
The principle of waste-to-resource means that instead of being thrown away or destroyed, surplus resources generated by industrial processes are captured and redirected for use as a ‘new’ and valuable commodity for input into another process by one or more other companies, thereby providing mutual benefit or symbiosis. International Synergies in the UK, a company whose board I serve on, has spent twelve years focused on industrial symbiosis, which challenges the business world to operate in the same way as the natural eco-system, where everything has a place and function, and nothing goes to waste.
Many of the freshest ideas on re-using waste are coming now from young designers. Take the sustainable footwear shown by Menswear fashion student Reiss Dendie at the mid-MA Royal College of Art show in London earlier this year, for example, made entirely from canvas using recycled fibres.
More established designers are also committing to the cause, including textile and product designer Ella Doran, whose Clean Up Plastic Camo Chair was showcased at this year’s London Design Week. Taking a chair abandoned on the London streets, Ella worked with Urban Upholstery to create a new and unique piece, upholstered with a textile Ella had previously created with designer Sophie Thomas, featuring a mosaic image of washed-up fragments of plastic found on beaches.
A book newly-published is ‘Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure’ by Katie Treggiden, which highlights the sheer inventiveness of designers inspired by the challenge of using waste creatively. Designer Bethan Gray, for example, incorporated shells and feathers discarded by the food industry into a black eco-resin desk, showcasing them beautifully in a striking zig-zag pattern.
We work in the creative industries to make life better for those we design for. Let’s extend that premise by making life better for the planet too. The idea of the endless re-use of materials is challenging, but isn’t responding to challenge the very essence of creativity?
Thanks for reading!
Image: Ella Doran
Image: Bethan Gray