Milan Design Week 2019 offered materials galore Now in its 58th year, Salone del Mobile, also known as Milan Design Week, is still the place to find the most innovative materials shaping the future of the industry. This year, many compelling material experiments emphasized environmental sustainability, including inventive uses for natural materials like feathers and volcanic ash and various new takes on recycled plastic.
In the design gallery Rossana Orlandi, an eye-catching furniture collection highlights natural materials that would otherwise be destined for landfills. British designer Bethan Gray partnered with sustainable surface company Nature Squared to create ?Exploring Eden,? a dazzling 10-piece collection where each piece uses locally sourced natural materials, like scallop shells thrown away by restaurants and goose feathers that are discarded after the soft layer of down is used for bedding.
Photo: Bethan Gray
Goose Feather Side Table.

Photo: Bethan Gray
Light Capiz Shell Side Table.

Gray also used thin capiz shells?from windowpane oysters?which were inlaid by hand to create a side table with a shimmering geometric pattern. ?The capiz shell is the bamboo of the sea?it grows very fast where freshwater and seawater meets,? Gray told Curbed. ?I was trying to give it a more contemporary feel.?
Nature Squared purchases the discarded shells from fishermen on the island of Negros in the Philippines, whic...