USA Pavilion at XXII Triennale International Exhibition Shines Light on Materials Revolution
RECKONstruct Explores New Approaches to Sustainable Design
XXII Triennale de Milano Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival
The American pavilion, titled RECKONstruct, at the XXII International Exhibition of La Triennale di Milano will be unveiled alongside showcases from around the world on March 1, 2019. The theme of this year’s International Exhibition is Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, illuminating the connection between humanity and the natural environment through design. The American pavilion, conceived and developed by a group of passionate environmental advocates including Arup, Humanscale, MIT’s SHINE Program, Novità Communications and NextWave Plastics, demonstrates how sustainable design can respond to the current global environmental crisis. Open through September 1, 2019, RECKONstruct spotlights the materials revolution underway in the United States and documents how the design studio of New York-based furniture company Humanscale reimagined a simple stool through three different approaches to sustainability—using naturally grown materials (bio-fabrication), harvesting unused waste (circular economy) and mimicking nature’s engineering solutions (biomimicry).
To measure the sustainability of each of the three designs, Humanscale partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s SHINE program—Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise. Evaluating all three stool designs using a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) confirmed and quantified land, climate, water, and energy impacts, among others, from materials sourcing to transportation to manufacturing to actual use. Ultimately, each stool is measured for its environmental “footprint” and “handprint,” or how it can help fix the broken nature that surrounds us.
“As a pioneer in sustainable design and manufacturing, Humanscale is honored to represent the United States in the important global movement reshaping mass production,” says Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer, Humanscale, and RECKONstruct Curator. “Sustainability is the ultimate design challenge and our concept work on display at the Triennale’s Broken Nature presents the range and beauty of sustainable solutions inspired by nature.”
Using materials including bio-fabricated mycelium from Ecovative Design, plastic from fishing nets harvested from the ocean by Bureo, a member of NextWave Plastic’s consortium of materials suppliers committed to mitigating environmental contamination, and non-recyclable municipal waste, the stools have the capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, reduce ocean plastic pollution and avert methane emissions from landfills.
New York-based lighting manufacturer Stickbulb provided the pavilion’s lighting installations. Stickbulb turns wood from locally-demolished buildings, decommissioned water towers, and fallen trees into a system of modular LED beams. The Bough pendants on display are made from 300+ year-old redwood salvaged from a dismantled water tower at 32 Court street in Brooklyn, New York.
An immersive film, produced by a Los Angeles-based team of engineers and designers at global engineering firm Arup, contrasts the innovative design concepts with conventional manufacturing approaches. The concept of the immersive film emerged from a consideration of the disconnect of design exhibitions from the outside material world. The curatorial team wanted to invite Triennale visitors to experience the reality of the material sources and supply chains that make possible the design objects on view throughout the exhibition, choosing an innovative 360-degree filming and audio recording technology to develop original filmed sequences to tell the full materials lifecycle story. In the exhibition, viewers are immersed into situations as diverse as a California coastal forest, an active rock quarry operation in Kansas, Humanscale’s New Jersey manufacturing facility and a construction recycling yard in Southern California.
“We’ve become so far removed from the sources of materials we use in our daily lives, including where they come from and where they end up,” said Russell Fortmeyer, Arup Associate Principal and Sustainability Consulting Leader and Chief Curator of the exhibit. “RECKONstruct gives us elegant and tangible examples of how design that is conscientious of the life-cycle burdens of materials can bring forth better products to the spaces in which we spend our lives.”
“The central challenge at this moment in nature’s history on Earth is for one of its creations, humanity, to consciously adopt one of its core creative principles: reciprocity, taking but also giving back,” adds Gregory Norris, Director of SHINE@MIT. “Our footprints are the taking that we seek to minimize through efficient design. Our handprints are the giving back, that we seek to maximize, through enlightened design.”
RECKONstruct invites visitors to immerse themselves in a new circular economy, experiencing its activities in spatial, audial and temporal terms, which expose the hidden opportunities of the material life cycle as a call to both collective and individual action.
Following are statements from RECKONstruct’s partners:
NovitĂ Communications
“This is an important time to show the commitment of the US design community to the global environmental crisis we all face. Our team jumped at the chance to join this critical conversation spearheaded by Paola Antonelli and the Triennale. The US Pavilion exhibition presents a small window into the work that is happening at companies large and small across the US. We are inspired by our global colleagues and feel opportunities like this bring us all forward.” – Christine Abbate, President, Novità Communications
NextWave Plastics
“As a species, humans have made a significant impact on the earth. This exhibit reminds us that it is possible and necessary to design not only with nature in mind, but also to hold nature as a central design principle in all that we create.” – Dune Ives, Executive Director, Lonely Whale
Stickbulb“We’re ecstatic to be included in the RECKONstruct exhibit, which closely aligns with our mission. Since we started Stickbulb in 2012, our mission has been to help design a world filled with more light and less waste.” – Stickbulb Co-Founder Russell Greenberg
Additional supporting sponsors include Green Building Alliance and NeoCon. All partners and sponsors are listed below.
About ARUP
Arup provides consulting, planning, engineering, and design services for the most prominent projects and sites in the built environment. Since its founding in 1946, the firm has consistently delivered technical excellence, innovation, and value to its clients, while maintaining its core mission of shaping a better world. Arup opened its first US office more than 30 years ago and now employs 1,400 people in the Americas and over 14,000 globally. The firm’s employee-ownership structure promotes independence, unbiased advice, and ongoing investment in joint research to yield better outcomes that benefit its clients and partners. Visit Arup’s website, www.arup.com, for more information.
About Humanscale
Humanscale leverages new technology and functional design to transform traditional offices into active, intelligent workspaces. As the leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance ergonomic products, Humanscale improves the health and comfort of work life. Committed to making a net-positive impact on the earth as well as our customers, Humanscale offers award-winning products designed with a focus on function, simplicity and longevity. For more information, visit www.humanscale.com.
About MIT’s SHINE Program
The Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) at MIT is a research center dedicated to improving the scientific basis by which NetPositive Sustainability is assessed at all of these levels: products, activities, companies, economic sectors, individuals, and groups of people. This includes the quantitative evaluation of footprints, which represents the taking side of the equation. These are conducted using the science, data, and methodologies of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA also provides the basis for estimating the giving side of Net Positive, which are called handprints. Handprints are created through the discovery and spread of innovations. The SHINE research center at MIT is a collaborative effort between MIT researchers and a consortium of members from industry and other sectors who seek to apply NetPositive methods as a means of thriving in ways that promote the thriving of others.
About NextWave Plastics
NextWave Plastics is a collaborative and open-source initiative convening leading technology and consumer-focused companies to develop the first global network of ocean-bound plastics supply chains. Since its launch, NextWave member companies have been developing their product use cases to demonstrate the viability of integrating ocean-bound plastics found in areas such as Indonesia, Chile, Philippines, Cameroon and Denmark, into their supply chains. To learn more, visit www.nextwaveplastics.org or follow @nxtwaveplastics.
About Stickbulb
Stickbulb was co-founded in 2012 by Yale School of Architecture graduates Russell Greenberg and Christopher Beardsley as a way to combine their mutual love of architecture, modular systems, and sustainable manufacturing. Born from a pile of scrap wood, the original objective of Stickbulb was to “build with light,” which has since been fulfilled in collaborations with brands like Google, Facebook and Whole Foods as well as private commissions for hotels, offices and residences across the globe. Designed by RUX, Stickbulb LED fixtures are handcrafted in New York City from sleek wooden beams using reclaimed materials sourced from locally demolished buildings and sustainably managed forests. Stickbulb products range from small desk lamps to room-filling custom installations and can be found in a growing list of international showrooms. http://stickbulb.com
About NeoCon
NeoCon is the world’s leading platform and most important event for the commercial interiors industry, held each year at The Mart in Chicago. Since launching in 1969, NeoCon has served as the annual gathering place for the commercial design world’s manufacturers, dealers, architects, designers, end-users, design organizations and media. The three-day event showcases game-changing products and services from both leading companies and emerging talent—providing unparalleled access to the latest and most innovative solutions. A robust educational program of keynote presentations and CEU sessions offers world-class expertise and insight about today’s most relevant topics as well as the future of commercial design. NeoCon is open to trade, media, C-Suite executives and other industry-related professionals. www.neocon.com
NeoCon® is a registered trademark of theMART, a Vornado Property.
About Green Building Alliance
Green Building Alliance (GBA) advances innovation in the built environment by empowering people to create environmentally, economically, and socially vibrant places. Founded in 1993, GBA is an independent nonprofit organization and one of the oldest regional green building organizations in the United States. GBA proudly serves Pittsburgh and the 26 counties of Western Pennsylvania, with stakeholders across the Mid-Atlantic, United States and the world
About XXII International Exhibition of La Triennale Milano
The XXII International Exhibition of La Triennale di Milano, titled Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, takes place from March 1 to September 1, 2019 and is curated by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design and Director of Research & Development at The Museum of Modern Art. Broken Nature reflects on the relationship between humans and environments at all scales—from the microbiome to the cosmos—including social, cultural, and natural ecosystems. www.triennale.org www.brokennature.org @latriennale @broken_nature #brokennature #triennalemilano
RECKONstruct
Commissioner
Gregory Norris
SHINE@MIT
Chief Curator
Russell Fortmeyer
Arup
Curators
Jane Abernethy, Mesve Vardar
Humanscale
Frances Yang
Arup
Exhibition Design
Paul Chavez, Matthew Wilkinson, Ashley Hastings
Arup
Project Activation
Chris Abbate, Danielle McWilliams, Barbara Musso
NovitĂ
Tina Brennan, Ross Bergman
Humanscale
Primary Sponsors
Humanscale
Arup
NovitĂ
Supporting Sponsors
Stickbulb
NextWave Plastics
NeoCon
Green Building Alliance
Supporting Technical Organizations
International Living Future Institute
Lonely Whale
Biomimicry Institute
Chrysalis Strategies
Modern Meadow
Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute
Ecovative
UBQ Materials
American Institute of Architects
U.S. Green Building Council
American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)
Pacific VR
