Ekokook + Objet Trou Noir – Via France @ Milan Design Week 2011

Absent last year because of their big 30th anniversary exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, VIA returns in force to the Salone.

Via France will occupy the 400 sq mtr former Emporio showroom.

Via Design France‘s “Prototype Creation assistance programme” are windows of opportunity where people can see the designs of tomorrow. Over the past 30 years Via Design France has financed prototypes by many designers who are now world famous, including Philippe Starck, Martin Szekely, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Matali Crasset, Mathieu Lehanneur, François Azambourg and Philippe Nigro…

Via Design France groups over 20 prototypes for pieces that propose authentic innovations in terms of materials, eco design, experimental techniques and research into new industrial processes.

Faltazi = Laurent Lebot & Victor Massip

Ekokook

Carte Blanche award 2010 to Faltazi (Laurent Lebot & Victor Massip)

The ‘Ekokook’ project by Faltazi is based on four essentials: waste management, kitchen health, reduction/ consumption of energy, and intelligent storage. Apart from ‘intelligent’ electrical appliances (compartmentalised dishwashers, steam oven, etc.), that cut energy consumption, and the use of materials and processes that have low impact on the environment.

‘Ekokook’ is remarkable for its approach to waste management, which takes the form of three micro plants.

The first, for solid wastes, uses a steel ball of the type seen in pinball machines to break glass, an endless screw to crush cans and plastic containers, and a hand-operated shredder/compressor to shred paper and produce bricks.

The second focuses on the water cycle and integrates several devices (double sink reservoir under sink, pitchers to be filled with non-grey water for watering gardens) that enable saving up to 15 litres of water per day.

The third deals with the breaking down and recycling of organic wastes by means of a waste receptacle that is a worm farm. The process uses live worms (up to 8,000 for the Ekokook project) to break down biodegradable wastes. In two or three months: two clean end products appear: a liquid fertilizer for plants and rich soil compost.

With Ekokook, Faltazi put sustainable development into the core of living space – the kitchen – encouraging breaks with technological solutions and ingrained habits. This is an anthropological project that turns us all into real players in the clean green global economy.

{objet} trou noir by Gaëlle Gabillet andStéphane Villard addresses the vital environment-related issues that result from over-production: recycling, availability of raw materials, and spatial encumberment. Three working hypotheses are put forward:

1) promoting a little known new material – ‘end matter’: the residual product left after the processing of wastes generated by our society ;

2) showing how functional objects can be broken down into ‘detachable parts’, each of which is a functional object in itself ;

3) establishing the principle that basic functional objects can be used singly or combined, and may have several functions.

What this research project shows is that by designing non-specialist objects we can reduce the number of products without relinquishing diversity of functions.