Aside from the rare up-cycled or open design project at this past week’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, there were very few radically new concepts and a lot of kinda-pretty-but-useless stuff. Very few designers targeted the environment in radical new ways, and almost none contributed significant inventions. One booth, however, had two promising new materials on exhibit: a laminate made from paper which could be structured into a chair (above) and a moldable material based on cellulose without synthetic binders which was made into a lamp (below). Material inventions of this nature could allow designers the freedom to experiment with form without all of the damage it usually ends up causing.
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. Leo is a artist, inventor and all around practical person in the Tangible Media Group at the Media Lab. He has a background in sculpture, architecture and industrial design as well as an MS from the Media Lab spent working on the kitchen of the future. He is on a search for truth.
