article sync cna to lx with hero gallery These designers from Singapore show us the future of design during Milan Design Week
At Future Impact 2, an exhibition held during the world’s leading furniture fair, these designers sparked conversation on how design and its processes can be enhanced with sustainably-led thinking and technology.
Furniture that absorbs carbon dioxide. Interactive ceramic wares made from glass waste. Lamps that combine 3D printing and basket weaving. These were some of the progressive works by Singaporean designers showcased during Milan Design Week 2024.
Held from Apr 16 to Apr 21, the fair is the world’s most important furniture trade and design showcase. The future-forward works contrasted with the historic surroundings of the dome La Rotanda del Pellegrini where they were exhibited and ignited many discussions on new possibilities in the design industry through harnessing today’s technology and thinking differently about sustainability.
The first version of Future Impact held in 2023 was curated by Tony Chambers and Maria Cristina Didero and presented by the DesignSingapore Council. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Wallpaper magazine, Chambers is also the founder of creative agency TC & Friends, and co-founder of design, art and ideas platform OTOMO. Didero is an independent design curator, author and consultant. Both were back to curate the second edition.
Copenhagen- and Singapore-based design studio Christian+Jade, comprising Christian Hammer Juhl and Jade Chen, zoomed in on the topic of materials – specifically the lesser-known rubber wood that is typically burned after a 30-year lifespan of rubber cultivation as only the tree sap is harvested to make rubber products; the wood is seen as waste.
The studio repurposed the wood, sourced from Malaysia by Japanese furniture company Karimoku, into the Para stool topped with a rubber ‘cushion’. “We wanted to create a design that brings together natural rubber and its wood, as a way of closing the gap between the rubber as we know it and its origins as a living resource while bringing attention to the beauty of rubber wood,” said Hammer Juhl.
