We don’t know what we’re doing. That was what all of us learnt about sustainability finally week’s 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen as Denmark’s capital metropolis performed host as soon as extra to this more and more influential European Design occasion. Timed, as it’s, in the identical week as Chicago’s Neocon, and following on from Milan’s monumental and well-renowned Salone, not even intermittently inclement climate may disguise the noticeably bigger viewers drawn to Copenhagen this yr.
Dwelling to a number of the most stunning cupboard maker designs on this planet, Denmark’s main furnishings producers have been out in power. Carl Hansen, Normann Copenhagen, Fredericia, Fritz Hansen, Hay and Muuto have been simply a number of the massive names opening up their spectacular multi-floor present areas within the centre of town.
The large theme, as anticipated, was round Sustainability. All over the place you went, producers have been extolling the ‘sustainable’ nature of their merchandise on supply. Recycled content material and post-use recyclability, responsibly sourced supplies and adaptability of use have been signposted in each show.
In a noticeable departure from final yr’s color all over the place method, earthy beiges, lotions and sand finishes, accented with the odd splash of lavender and pink rose, dominated the various process and couch seating ranges being proven, and the emphasis as soon as extra was on regionally sourced supplies.
What did we be taught?
Usually exhibits like this prior to now have felt just like the echo chambers one experiences on social media, the place you hear solely what you wish to hear, over and over, till it turns into your fact. What I loved most about this yr’s 3 Days of Design was partaking with these producers who have been keen to problem our norms.
1 – We don’t know what we’re doing
There was a willingness amongst quite a few exhibitors to brazenly admit that we’re a great distance away from understanding the problem that furnishings manufacturing and consumption prompts. Trine Mulvad Steffensen, Muuto’s Sustainability Lead, spoke of Muuto’s purpose to cut back their carbon footprint by 50% by 2030. With a view to obtain this, and talking along with her you could be pretty assured they’ll, three important themes got here by.
Firstly, it is a goal that has come from board stage, and her function is to carry that board to account all through this course of. Secondly, the biggest a part of that footprint revolves across the merchandise they promote. Lastly, with a purpose to obtain an bold goal corresponding to this, they should begin with the information. How can they know what their problem is with out that knowledge?
It was one in all quite a few open conversations with producers and designers accepting that we’re on a steep studying curve in the meanwhile, and that this journey has solely actually simply begun.
2 – Sustainable furnishings isn’t simply concerning the supplies inside that product.
Whereas the content material of every chair, desk, couch, pod and shelving unit we noticed is a crucial factor of a producer’s dedication to sustainability, many corporations are additionally, fairly rightly, emphasising the impression of their manufacturing on the wellbeing of their native communities, in addition to the modularity and adaptability of the options they’ve supplied for his or her purchasers.
Eventhough Office Wellbeing was much less the tagline on everybody’s lips, and biophilia and Pods weren’t as omnipresent as in earlier exhibits, there have been constructive indicators that creating nice, related locations to work, was nonetheless a precedence as a part of a sustainability agenda.
3 – Regionally sourced isn’t at all times finest sourced
It is smart that in case you can supply the supplies in your merchandise near the place you might be manufacturing, then you might be minimising the environmental impression of the transport of these supplies. After we requested Mater, in our opinion probably the most progressive producers within the sustainability area, why they have been sourcing Mango wooden from India, they defined that this wooden was a by-product of mango farming, and supplied an additional supply of earnings for the native farmers from what was beforehand an basically waste product as soon as the bushes had stopped producing fruit. Not solely that, however the local weather in India ensures that this wooden regrows rather more shortly than regionally sourced bushes would, usually inside 7-12 years, guaranteeing a sustainable lifecycle.
It’s a terrific instance of our earlier assumptions being challenged, and likewise, as a B Corp licensed firm, it’s nice for us at Wellworking to be offered with Mater’s assertion that their Moral footprint is as necessary as their Environmental one.
4 – Again to the Future
Numerous producers have dived into their archives, and people of different designers, to re-imagine historic designs utilizing right now’s supplies.
Lots of these designs got here from a post-war period of shortage, one thing that we, as trendy shoppers, are being inspired to contemplate extra deeply. An enchanting discuss with the uber-talented Rikke Frost, award-winning designer of the Sideways assortment for Carl Hansen, revealed why her furnishings is sort of unimaginable to sit down in with out wanting to the touch and really feel it consistently. That want to work together with the furnishings was a significant driver behind her design work. Her feeling is that by making her furnishings so tactile, she is encouraging folks to subconsciously think about the supplies getting used.
At a time of straightforward availability, sustainability to those folks is about enthusiastic about the shortage which can comply with.
5 – A model shared is a model doubled
International design chief Vitra shared an occasion with Kvadrat, and British powerhouse designer Tom Dixon continued his profitable collaboration with Danish producer Ege Carpets whereas additionally introducing their extremely anticipated AW24 assortment.
‘In all probability the perfect’ examples of this collaborative method have been at Hay. Their teaming up with Asics on the restricted version Skyhand OG assortment offered out inside an hour of its day 1 launch, whereas their equally restricted version collaboration with Carlsberg, solely served at their Thursday night cocktail get together, was put below related stress.
6 – Circularity, and different elephants within the room
Regardless of circularity being a buzz phrase all through the 2 days, just one or two producers we spoke to have been planning refurbishment into the structure of their manufacturing amenities.
Whereas Plan A stays manufacturing as a lot new product as we will promote, the Plan B of what occurs when the proportion of product purchased that’s model new declines, and it’ll, was reasonably shockingly absent from most conversations.
What one producer fairly rightly recognized was that the refurbishment of present product wanted to happen extra regionally. As a B Corp which is investing in increasingly more of our personal house to do that for our manufacturing companions, we couldn’t agree extra, however it nonetheless got here as a shock to not hear about extra producers planning for second-life refurbishment.
7 – The exceptions show the rule
Montana refused to learn the impartial colors memo, displaying off their typical distinctive color palette throughout a variety of desking, seating and storage items.
Lintex used their house to place collectively a considerate exhibition focussing on neurodiversity, a rising theme in right now’s workplace wellbeing story. Their curated walk-through, barricaded at many factors by pink string, got here collectively on the finish level to point out how a various set of concepts, not simply understandable individually, may come collectively to kind readability and function.
Mockingly given the climate just lately, it additionally seems that outside actually is the brand new indoors. There have been many great all-weather furnishings designs on present, a lot of which have been profitable developments of present basic designs.
An enchanting few days on this pretty metropolis, with the Danish traits of openness and integrity of design on full show. Traits that are sorely wanted if we’re to really perceive what sustainability must imply for our trade.
