DesignMarch for the environment

DesignMarch is just around the corner but the festival will take place all over the capital region from 4th to 8th May. The program this year is versatile and exciting and boasts over 100 exhibitions and 200 events. It's safe to say that everyone should find something to their liking. 

We've gathered a few events that are especially well suited for those interested in circular economy, recycling and up-cycling and sustainability.

Valdís Steinarsdóttir has been researching new ways of manufacturing clothing. It proposes a technique that eliminates excess scraps, just the exact amount of material is used for each garment. Instead of cutting out patterns and sewing, natural liquid material is moulded into a two-dimensional shape. So you would rather measure garments in millimeters than in meters. Valdís has teamed up with 66°North and they will exhibit material samples to give a glimpse of what possibilities there are for the project in the near future when it has developed further.

Reshaping Mineral Wool provides insight into Flétta and Kristín Sigurðardóttir’s ongoing material research where the possibilities of recycling mineral wool and waste materials from its production are explored. The raw material created is black and gleaming similar to the obsidian which is a protected volcanic rock.

The exhibition “Prototype” is the second phase in a big project that aims to increase secondary production from recycled plastics with focus on product development. The results of the ongoing development of the “Everyday” collection will be showcased for the first time. In the last years Plastplan have designed, developed, built machines and processes to recycle plastic they use to create various products in their Reykjavík studio.

Coat-19 by Tobia Zambotti & Aleksi Saastamoinen is the puffer jacket filled with disinfected disposable masks collected from the streets of Reykjavík during the pandemic when masks wear mandatory. The project highlights the absurd pandemic-related pollution.

What would an ideal future for sustainable fashion look like?  How can circular solutions support and promote Icelandic design Iceland’s first fashion rental SPJARA invites guests to harness their creativity and take part in shaping the vision for a sustainable future of Icelandic fashion at SPJARA’s co-design event. Attendees can also use the opportunity to dress up and rent an outfit for DesignMarch at SPJARA’s pop-up rental. A selection of new and used designer items will be available to rent, highlighting quality Icelandic design.

Discarded puffer-coats and jackets from 66°North get a new life and become chairs that can be re-fitted again and again. Made out of a single metal rod, covered with sleeves of the discarded material, the chairs are the first outcome of an ongoing exploration of how upcycling can be achieved between product categories. Erm (Icelandic for “sleeve”) is by designers Arnar Ingi and Valdís Steinars in collaboration with 66°North and tailored by Nína Guðrún Guðlaugsdóttir.

Icelandic design brand FÓLK presents two new product lines by Icelandic designers at its pop-up location downtown Reykjavik. FÓLK also gives insight into the methods the brand and its designers use to implement sustainability, circularity and reduced CO2 footprint of its products. The EU estimates that 80% of a product’s environmental impacts are decided upon in the design phase, so how can designers design us into a more environmentally friendly world? FÓLK has already taken the first steps in this journey and invites guests to explore it with them.

Designers Bosk and Sól will showcase a capsule collection of garments created using recycling methods developed by the team using all locally resourced waste textile. The methods are based on well-known Icelandic craftsmanship and classic techniques. The project aims to lay the foundation for a recycling economy for waste textiles in Iceland and to fully recycle them. The textile is shredded into threads or fibres and recycled into a new textile for a new product.

The Textile Association curates a group exhibition to motivate and think of ways and solutions by recycling and upcycling. It is possible to have a positive impact on the production cycle by demonstrating how we can utilize what has already been created, again or in a new way.

At DesignMarch 66°North and Flétta introduce their collaboration where the end goal is to fully utilise materials from the manufacturing of 66°North clothing. In recent months, Flétta has experimented with textile offcuts from the production of 66°North clothing, the material has been melted, sewn and wrapped together in different ways in search of the right context for the textiles. The exhibition will provide an insight into this experimental process, which is often hidden from the public.

Jarðgerðarfélagið presents a new processes that utilizes service- and social design to enhance the sustainable use of organic household ‘waste’ in Iceland. Using service design as a core principle, Jarðgerðarfélagið has found new opportunities in joining municipalities and residents towards a common goal in sustainability. At the exhibit, guests are invited to examine their relationship with their organic ‘rubbish’, assess their attitudes towards it, and imagine the possibilities of a human-centered approach.