Design and environment: a winning combination?

by Anna de Polo

The design took the hand of the environment to lead him among the most trendy clubs and bars of Milan. The couple, strong in its deep bond, followed the magic path traced by flying lamps, hung –or suspended?- in the streets of the centre.

It could be the beginning of a new urban fairy tale, but it’s what happened during the Salone del Mobile (Milan, April 14 to 19). The design studio [1+2=8] and Ecolight, a consortium for the management of electronic waste (WEEE), launched (S)Top Selection, a guide through the events proposed for the “Fuori Salone”: so the design is matched to the environment to raise awareness on electronic waste and their proper recovery.The initiative has seen protagonists the flying lamps by Ecolight, which, installed at the entrance of the premises involved in the project, led visitors on a journey through the trendy places in Milan. These lamps, like lanterns or balloons, were designed by the study [1+2=8] and are able to remain suspended about three metres in height with helium and a combination of three materials that prevent helium to escape.

«(S)Top Selection is a project that we launched last year along with Atelier Panda and it was very successful -Andrea Barra and David Gallina, the developers of [1+ 2 = 8] says- The lamp gives shape and light, separating it from the static condition that characterizes the conventional lamps. It does not fluctuate, it flies, becoming a privileged instrument to convey a message and a way to remind everyone that a light bulb low energy must be brought to the pitch and not put in the bag of the waste collection».

This one of the flying lamps is just one of the many initiatives in which the themes of environment and sustainability are combined with those of design, fashion and art. From this unusual marriage of ideas and creative cues are born things like green glamour, eco-design, green architecture and environmental art, stimulating a growing interest among even the non-experts. From the Atelier of recycling, which devotes itself to the creative reuse of objects that apparently have exhausted their function, to the vegetal paintings of Isacco Brioschi, so many new forms of art are colored green. In this regard we point out the 1.618 Sustainable Luxury Fair, that is holding in the Palais Tokyo in Paris, May 6 to 10. The event, sponsored by WWF and the French Ministry of Culture, aims to showcase works that combine the aesthetic component, the quality of the object and the respect of environment. For those who don’t have the occasion to go so far we mention the exhibition Fashion Paper, opened in Palazzo Isimbardi in April 29 in Milan, where it will remain until 11 May, then moves to Florence and Turin. The exhibition will host the clothes developed by students of fashion schools using recycled paper. «The concept behind the project -explains Bianca Capello, curator of the event- is to communicate fashion, art and design through a material ethically "good" and artistically fascinating as paper».

In the kaleidoscopic world of fashion and design the presence of environmental issues in some cases seems more a marketing choice, which exploits the trend of the moment, rather than the birth of a true environmental sensitivity. In this manner we risk of creating addiction, accustoming the public to “green” messages and spreading the idea that it is only a trend. On the other hand, to convey environmental messages to as many people as possible is necessary to use multiple media, in the hope that they do not distort the content but, rather, they will renew it, making it more "cool" and proposing it in a new light.