As designers we find ourselves uniquely positioned to play a pivotal role as bridge builders, understanding the different expertise necessary at any given time to address complex challenges between the physical and digital, the large and the small, between industry and markets. It is our job to unlock the potential of our collaborators by building the necessary bridges that guide the way. One of our most effective tools is developing projects that can deliver both in terms of financial sustainability and environmental sustainability, as one without the other can not create a meaningful impact. These projects are more often than not complex in their nature, however, what unifies them is almost always a form of multidisciplinary expertise that is necessary to approach the challenge holistically, and a willingness to rethink existing structures and traditions.
Snøhetta's approach to design and architecture has always been rooted in multidisciplinary collaboration, expanding our expertise from Architecture and Landscape to Interior Design, Product Design, Graphic, and Digital Design to gather as much knowledge and experience to make informed and uniquely inspired decisions along the way. We talk about our collaboration methodology as celebrating the "singular in the plural" and acknowledging different perspectives, both inside and outside our own organization, to reach holistic solutions and to ensure we keep learning and evolving.
During Milan Design Week this year we are physically launching a project that exemplifies this collaborative spirit, where Snøhetta, together with Fornace Brioni and Studio Plastique, have explored what it takes to make waste valuable through our Forite project. The learnings from the project have great value in themselves, but the impact of the project remains limited unless we turn it into something bigger. That’s why we continue to push past regulatory challenges, solving sourcing problems, ensuring certifications and making the products available to a larger market. Only then can the project really have an impact. Forite Tile 01 and 02 signal a clear push toward a new form of aesthetic driven by resources and honesty in material use. The project aims to prove feasibility and create new value for an abundant yet largely unused group of materials: glass from electronic waste.
In an industry that demands transparency and consistency as a standard, Forite embraces the variance and complexity embedded in waste materials. To us, Forite is just the beginning and an example for us and others to learn from. The potential in materials that are currently not used efficiently due to restrictions, regulations, old habits, and systems or lack of political incentives is enormous.
We hope you’ll find time to stop by our Forite exhibit at Alcova, or any of our other Snøhetta events to have a chat while in Milan this year. Perhaps we’ll find ways for making an impact together in the coming years.
Marius Myking
Director of Product Design, Snøhetta
Read more about Forite
Here are Snøhetta’s highlights for Milan Design Week 2022:
Lodes Volum Series, doing more with less
On Tuesday the 7th of June, the Venetian lamp manufacturer Lodes will open their brand-new flagship store at Via della Moscova 33 in Milan, which will present the Snøhetta designed and recently launched Volum pendant series.
Arctic Nordic Alpine exhibition
