Formafantasma wants to question the concept of luxury. earth laboratory. Staged within the historic walls of Teatro Gerolamo during the Fuorisalone as part of this year’s Milan Design Week, this dynamic installation invites viewers to look beyond the mere surface beauty of design and instead explore the process. It encourages us to look to ethical and environmentally friendly modes of production.
Formafantasma collaborated with Cosentino, which manufactures sustainable surfaces for design and architectural projects, to turn waste into beauty. The design studio set out to wisely reimagine what we consider junk as something that is reused and reimagined within the design and production process.
For example, debris collected from Cosentino’s manufacturing process is used to create the surfaces featured in the following works: earth laboratoryThe used cooking oil from the company’s kitchens helps make the resin, and the white pieces on the surface (the aesthetic part) are made up of recycled glass and PET, as well as recycled plastic. Choosing a muted gray and dark green color palette still requires less resin than if the team had chosen lighter, brighter hues.
This is not a vanity project either. The Milan installation will introduce a sub-brand and research platform within Cosentino dedicated to investigating how to make the entire Cosentino process more sustainable.
Since founding their firm in 2009, Italian designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Faresin have explored ways in which design can positively impact the world through their studios in Milan and Rotterdam. Through projects ranging from furniture and lighting design to installations and research-based initiatives, as well as collaborations with a variety of global industries and institutions, Formafantasma’s work continually pushes the boundaries of design and explores how design and objects interact. It stimulates critical thinking about the role we play in our society.
I met with Trimarchi and Faresin before their show in Milan to learn more about Cosentino’s projects and get a feel for their current and future approaches to design.
Earthic Lab offers a new perspective on the surface world. Can you talk about your decision to use recycled and waste materials in your processes and production?
We started by looking back at Cosentino’s waste stream. Currently, one of the essential elements in the development of the surface is the use of debris from the company’s production process. We have also introduced resins that, while still largely synthetic, are partially made from oil recovered from edible oils. Contains organic ingredients. Other components include recycled glass and his PET, which is also used for the small white shards that appear in the surface design aesthetic.
Can you talk about the design process?
The design process here is to design from the inside out. We didn’t start with aesthetics, but with the idea of improving sustainable components within the surface. From this, the use of recycled materials has reduced the amount of material that needs to be excavated or extracted from underground to create this surface. This is the general concept.
The more subdued color choices also seem to have a sustainable angle…
When speaking with Cosentino engineers, we learned that the brighter and brighter the color, the more resin it requires. Therefore, we decided to go in the direction of dark tones. We believe this also fits the situation where these materials are used, especially kitchen tops. However, it was appropriate to move in this direction from a sustainable perspective.
What were the big challenges?
Find materials as close to your production facility as possible. From the beginning, we wanted to make our materials more sustainable, so given the increased CO2 emissions from transport, it didn’t make sense to source materials from the other side of the world, even if they were recycled. did.
That’s why we started with the factory and looked at what could be recycled from within the factory itself. We then moved on to using locally recycled glass and PET. Of course, some of the materials and components used in the slabs came from other regions, such as Turkey, but we worked as much as possible from the Cosentino-based site and expanded only where necessary. I tried.
How does this envision the future of luxury surface design?
Yes, we think this is the future of surface design. It’s not about luxury. It’s about the world we live in. We can no longer just look at aesthetics, we need to understand the importance of how things are made. Our collaboration with Cosentino is just that. It’s an attempt to design products from the inside out, where aesthetic choices also align with ethical and sustainable choices. Decision-making from this perspective is relevant to design in general today.
If we really have to talk about luxury, we believe that luxury does not only refer to quality based on the execution of something. It must correspond to sustainable production methods.
And do you think both the industry and consumers are becoming more open to accepting new concepts?
Those we call consumers, we prefer to call users or citizens because we believe that these objects should be used, not consumed. We believe that users are always ready for something that is meaningful and provides important functionality. We know this is not the final solution, but we want to emphasize that we are making progress towards improvement.
earthy is a laboratory within Cosentino whose purpose is to continue this research towards improving the quality of materials. We believe that users are ready to apply this type of product at home. Because the product serves its purpose and performs well. Additionally, there is the added benefit of trying to make surfaces more sustainable. So why shouldn’t people accept this? We also recognize that the more improvements we make to improve our environment, the better our wellbeing will be.
You talk about the show’s mission to address and challenge the climate crisis. What do you hope the audience takes away from Milano?
Understanding the reality of a product, its components and its design is important not only for aesthetics, but also for how things are produced. We often talk about quality in production – the performance and aesthetics of a product, but we rarely talk about the decisions behind how it is made. This is very important to make informed decisions and this installation will help visitors understand that.
Cosentino Earthic Lab x Formafantasma at Fuorisalone was held from April 15th to 21st, 2024 at Teatro Gerolamo in Milan, Italy.
Read the Fuorisalone highlights of Milan Design Week 2024 here.