For Milan Design Week this year, Nendo and Daniel Arsham took on an interesting and rather poetic collaborative practice. Housed at the Friedman Benda art gallery, their 'Break to Make' exhibition embraced the lifecycle of objects and subtly commented on how one should treat objects that are broken.
For the 'Break to Make' exhibition, Nendo designed a series of objects that had "no specific functionality." Arsham, in turn, would break these objects and then mold them into something else—but useful. The results were interesting—"from a bathtub-like form, a loveseat emerged; from a long and narrow block, a bench or a stool; from a tall, square form, a console table was revealed." Through this exhibit, Nendo and Daniel Arsham hint that destruction is not necessarily an end to things.
Image Credit: Nendo
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Upcycling Art
- Creative art exhibits featuring the transformation of discarded items into functional and appealing objects offer disruptive innovation opportunities for the fashion and craft industries.
- Circularity Consciousness
- Design practices which promote the circular economy and repurposing items for aesthetic purposes offer disruptive innovation opportunities for sustainability-conscious manufacturing and construction industries.
- Reimagined Functionality
- The trend towards reimagining the purpose of discarded materials and revamped design creates disruptive innovation opportunities for interior design and architecture.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Interior Design
- Interior design could benefit from the upcycling trend and consider circularity consciousness when coming up with creative solutions for repurposing or reimagining discarded materials.
- Architecture
- Architecture could potentially utilize the trend towards creating new functionalities from discarded materials, adopt the circular economy, and develop sustainable building practices.
- Art
- The art world can continue to explore the potential of upcycling by promoting and producing pieces that repurpose commonly discarded resources and materials.
