Promotion: aluminium and renewable power firm Hydro is exhibiting its collaboration with designer Lars Beller Fjetland on the London Design Competition, exploring how partnerships can assist make the metals trade extra sustainable.
Earlier this 12 months Hydro and Fjetland partnered to launch Bello! bench, a bit of outside seating constituted of extruded aluminium with 90 per cent recycled content material.
Hydro is now exhibiting the bench at Materials Issues at Oxo Tower, in a show that goals to speak how the undertaking advances the corporate’s ambition to decarbonise society.
“Materials and manufacturing literacy are key to creating actually sustainable merchandise”, says Hydro’s advertising director, Asle Forsbak, noting an estimate that 80 per cent of a product’s environmental footprint is set within the design part.
The corporate goals to realize net-zero emissions by 2050 and push the entire trade in the direction of these targets as properly.
This method has guided the corporate into partnerships with designers and producers together with Tom Dixon, Polestar, Porsche and Cake because it seeks to share information about how you can design with aluminium.
“As a designer the alternatives you make on the drafting board determine if the product could be taken aside and recycled repeatedly, which is why understanding materials properties and manufacturing processes is essential,” mentioned Forsbak.
In accordance with Forsbak, a deep understanding of engineering, materials science and the realities of manufacturing all formed the Bello! bench.
It’s constituted of 90 per cent recycled aluminium, most of which is end-consumer scrap and could be recycled in its entirety.
Fjetland based mostly his design on penne rigate pasta, luxuriating within the ridged floor texture that might be created by way of extrusion.
As a part of the exhibition, Fjetland is releasing Bello! in a brand new color, a “putting, naturalesque inexperienced”, and says the design is “a sensible instance of how we’re stronger once we work collectively”.
“At face worth, Hydro may seem to be an unlikely exhibitor on the London Design Competition,” mentioned Forsbak. “However with the Bello! bench, we need to reveal how the trade and designers can work collectively to supply a sensible and fairly product that may be mass produced, and likewise meet the society’s rising sustainability calls for.”
“At one hand, industrial mass manufacturing comes with a slew of challenges concerning environmental sustainability,” mentioned Forsbak. “However, there must be a market pull for corporations to supply sustainably.”
Forsbak explains that for “actual, impactful change” it’s essential to have an amalgamation of views, experience and industries when designing merchandise.
“The sustainability problem of mass manufacturing is not solved in a vacuum; We have to work intently with our companions to assist decarbonise society,” he mentioned. “That’s the reason collaboration is essential.”
The Bello! bench could be seen at Hydro’s show on the Materials Issues exhibition. The corporate’s stand shall be constituted of reused structural elements from previous exhibitions.
To be taught extra about aluminium and design, go to Hydro’s aluminium information hub, Shapes.
Partnership content material
This text was written by Dezeen for Hydro as a part of a partnership. Discover out extra about Dezeen partnership content material right here.
