ECAL MILANO 2023: Junkyard Diving
17–23.04.2023
House of Switzerland, Milano

The shortage of energy and resources that many countries are currently experiencing or anticipating, raises several questions about supply alternatives and ways of limiting consumption. According to studies, the cumulative number of metals to be produced in the coming years would exceed the cumulative amount produced since antiquity to the present day.  

In the wake of forthcoming legislation on the right to repair products, energy and resource consumption, design, as an innovation discipline, must play a key role. 

Junkyard Diving questions our consumption habits, as well as the role of designers in the world of tomorrow. "Form follows function" is a maxim attributed to the modernist architect Louis Sullivan. In industrial design, if this statement is sometimes at the heart of reflections, it can also be reversed, in which case the form determines the function through a creative process based on existing elements.    

During a week-long workshop with designer Philippe Malouin, Bachelor Industrial Design students adopted this latter approach: seeking new functions inspired by forms found in a metal recycling center. Through this process, unexpected associations and discoveries are made, generating a new vocabulary of forms.    

« With resources dwindling, it is essential to challenge the way we generate new ideas: combining or altering existing forms and elements can lead to new discoveries in product design. Other people’s trash can definitely be our creative treasure », says Philippe Malouin. 

Junkyard Diving highlights the existing - yet under-exploited - opportunities for recycling that design provides. 

Presented at the House of Switzerland, Junkyard Diving is part of the group exhibition Urgent Legacy, which proposes innovative and sustainable Swiss design responses to the urgent challenges of the present, in collaboration with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and Presence Switzerland. 

Junkyard Diving

Project

"Form follows function" is an expression attributed to the modernist architect Louis Sullivan. It is a statement that is quite relevant to industrial design. On the other hand, form can sometimes also determine function in a process of reverse exploration. During the workshop with Philippe Malouin, students were encouraged to look for new functions inspired by forms found in a metal recycling center. In this process, random discoveries and associations were made to generate a new and surprising vocabulary of forms.