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#Industry News

Loving Materials at Orgatec

Among the many delights this international trade fair for the working world has to offer, in the far back of Hall 8 we spotted an amazing materials exhibition with a number of impressive and intelligent designs.

During a speech in Milan last April, Tom Dixon said that designers LOVE materials, and it might come as no surprise, but “70% of all innovations are being based on new material,” Haute Innovation.

No wonder then at this year’s exhibition, several objects made from surprising and natural materials caught viewers’ attention from their beautiful design. Coffee cups made from ground coffee beans, a bicycle helmet made from linen fibers, high heels made from ocean plastic and and plenty more to catch the eye and get the imagination running.

It was 2009 in Italy when the smell of ground coffee beans was on its way to becoming something more. One intense study night after the next, with a hefty coffee intake, German product designer Julian Lechner—studying in Italy at the time—had an idea. He took coffee waste and turning it into a renewable raw material used to produce new objects. By 2015 the first espresso cup made from coffee waste was on the market. Kaffee Form, based in Germany, collects coffee grounds from the local Berlin Gastronomy, where the grounds are then dried, packed and shipped.

French duo Etienne-Marie de Boissieu and Benoit Denis founded EGIDE in 2014, a new French brand specialised in high-end helmets for urban cycling, include the linen in their products. Linen hemet in their Apollo collection, amidst other gems on display at the materials exhibition, shines beautifully. The eco-friendly and natural vegetable fiber has great shock-absorbing properties. EGIDE has the fibers undergo resin molding with an anti-UV and scratch-resistant varnish.

High heels made from ocean plastic designed by Laura Spilker

Details

  • Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy
  • Erin Tallman

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