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New European Bauhaus
Project

materieunite

Cardboard has never looked so good, or had so many uses. 

materieunite © European Union
materieunite
© European Union, 2021

Cardboard ? has never looked so good, or had so many uses. 

That is, up until now!
 
Introducing materieunite, an Italian project that designs and develops permanent and temporary solutions from recycled cardboard and other durable materials that are either recyclable or recovered from  supply chain waste. 
 
From ready-to-use to modulated spaces with lightweight structures and quick assembly creations, their aim is to develop a circular furniture supply chain.  
 
The initiative, which translates from Italian to "joint materials," is the rising star winner of the 2021 New European Bauhaus prize in the category "Products and lifestyle." 
 
materieunite's projects are achieved by first working on and then cutting bi-dimensional cardboard panels, which are then joined together to form tridimensional structures.

The algorithms of materieunite enable the automatic, and real-time receipt of technical drawings, which allows for significant reductions in operational time and costs involved. 
 
They created three advanced programming languages ?: 

  • Onda, for the design of organic volumes for functional decorations (e.g. counter, shelves, lamps) 
  • Colonna produces custom projects out of tubular cardboard 
  • Piega, used for spatial volumes by only applying cuts and folds at 90 degrees. 

Sustainability and circularity are at the project's core ♻️. One of the motivations for using the optimisation approach throughout the installation's production phase is to minimise and eliminate waste. Materials produced never become waste, but can be newly recycled and live once again as virgin materials.
 
The goods are also highly standardised, and can be manufactured in any place, minimising transportation emissions and packing expenses. 
 
materieunite aims to make sustainable design affordable and accessible to all, across all levels of society in line with the "leave no one behind" ethos. Their vision is to revolutionise the design production industry and they plan workshops to advertise and promote know-how in the field of design and in sustainable digital production. 
 
? © European Union 
#EUGreenDeal #Repurpose #CircularDesign #ecodesign