Mate­r­i­al+ Future issues in design

• Time­line: April 21 — Sep­tem­ber 3, 2023
• Open­ing: Thurs­day, April 20, 2023, 7 p.m.
• Sup­port­ing pro­gram with guid­ed tours, talk and workshop.

In coop­er­a­tion with the Neues Muse­um in Nurem­berg, bay­ern design will show­case a design exhi­bi­tion about new mate­ri­als. Spread over six façade rooms, the exhi­bi­tion will explore new mate­ri­als need­ed today and for the future as well as par­tic­u­lar­ly sus­tain­able ways to process and employ them. Dis­plays will include design objects, research projects, and spec­u­la­tive mod­els. The sup­port­ing pro­gram will encom­pass spe­cial tours, a talk event about design, and a workshop.

New mate­ri­als have always had great influ­ence on the dis­ci­pline of design. How­ev­er, con­fronting resource scarci­ty and cli­mate and bio­di­ver­si­ty crises has increased the need to reflect, includ­ing for design­ers, and has dri­ven the urgency to apply mate­ri­als. Envi­ron­men­tal require­ments and their social and eco­nom­ic premis­es are pri­or­i­ty con­cerns. While the role new mate­ri­als play in the over­all con­text of sus­tain­able design is not unique, it is important.

The three-chap­tered exhi­bi­tion will show­case a selec­tion of pieces made using new mate­ri­als which have been researched, includ­ing as design ele­ments. Top­ics will include diverse phas­es of the cycle of the mate­r­i­al from raw mate­r­i­al extrac­tion through pro­cess­ing to the appli­ca­tion, use and reuse, or recir­cu­la­tion back into the envi­ron­ment. The objec­tive is to illus­trate that while sus­tain­able design focus­es on select­ing new mate­ri­als, it always keeps the entire cycle of the mate­r­i­al in mind.

Pack­ag­ing made from food waste? Chairs grown from min­er­als? Footwear made from lignin? The Raw Mate­ri­als and Pro­cess­ing chap­ter will deal with the devel­op­ment and appli­ca­tion of new mate­ri­als based on renew­able or recy­cled raw mate­ri­als. The exhibits will explain how designs that use these mate­ri­als can help pro­tect resources. Exam­ples pre­sent­ed will include exhibits by Tom Dixon and Mau­r­izio Montalti.

The Use Stage and Life­time chap­ter will address the devel­op­ment and appli­ca­tion of new mate­ri­als on a usage basis. Be it tex­tiles made with cel­lu­lose or seat­ing made from recy­cled plas­tics, to avoid unnec­es­sary waste and reduce ener­gy and raw mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion the dura­bil­i­ty of mate­ri­als should align with the object’s expect­ed dura­tion of use. Authors of appli­ca­tions dis­played will include Ste­fan Diez and Steelcase.

Design begins long before a mate­r­i­al is deployed and ends long after the use phase of the prod­uct expires. The Recir­cu­la­tion and Cycle chap­ter will con­cern the devel­op­ment and appli­ca­tion of new mate­ri­als that can be recir­cu­lat­ed into most­ly nat­ur­al cycles as eas­i­ly and with as lit­tle residue as pos­si­ble. Objects such as acoustic pan­els made from fun­gus myceli­um, ves­sels made from algae, and sin­gle-use pack­ag­ing made from sea­grass do not release any harm­ful sub­stances or microplas­tics into the envi­ron­ment. Appli­ca­tions of these mate­ri­als on dis­play include entries by Stu­dio Klaren­beek & Dros and Notpla.

The exhi­bi­tion in the six façade rooms is curat­ed by bay­ern design and is a coop­er­a­tion between the Neues Muse­um and bay­ern design.

Open­ing hours
Tues­day through Sun­day 10 a.m. — 6 p.m.; Thurs­day 10 a.m. — 8 p.m.; closed Monday

Tick­et prices
Exhi­bi­tion and col­lec­tion – reg­u­lar fee: EUR 7; dis­count­ed fee: EUR 6; free entry for chil­dren up to 18 years of age

• Curator’s tour with Kil­lian Fabich, bay­ern design on Wednes­day, May 24, 2023, 5 p.m.
• Themed tour “Design with Mate­r­i­al Waste” with Kil­lian Fabich, bay­ern design on Wednes­day, June 21, 2023, 5 p.m.
• Director’s tour with Simone Schimpf, Neues Muse­um Nürn­berg on Thurs­day, August 3, 2023, 6 p.m.

Addi­tion­al fee: EUR 3

• Director’s tour “Art on the rocks” with Simone Schimpf fol­lowed by a drink to get to know each oth­er and exchange ideas at Falco’s Man­u­fak­tur on Fri­day, June 23, 2023, 6 p.m.

Fee:  EUR 12 (incl. drink), reg­is­tra­tion at muse­umspaed­a­gogik [at] nmn.de

Talk event “per­spec­tives by design. mate­r­i­al inno­va­tions” on Tues­day, May 16, 2023, 6 p.m.

Devel­op­ments and sam­ple appli­ca­tions of new and sus­tain­able mate­ri­als will be intro­duced in brief pre­sen­ta­tions and talks to illus­trate how inter­na­tion­al design­ers are using inno­v­a­tive mate­ri­als as design ele­ments and are involved in research­ing mate­ri­als and processes.

Cost: 19 Euro, reduced/early bird 10 Euro (incl. admis­sion fee)

Tick­ets at material-innovations.eventbrite.de and at the box office.

An event by bay­ern design.

Work­shop “Future-Mak­ing-Lab: Design­ing with new mate­ri­als. How do mate­ri­als shape our future?” on Tues­day, July 18, 2023, 2 to 6 p.m.

Devised by UnDe­sig­nUnit, Future-Mak­ing-Lab will offer inter­dis­ci­pli­nary groups an exper­i­men­tal space to explore bio-based mate­ri­als and for­mu­late future-ori­ent­ed appli­ca­tions using spec­u­la­tive design. The work­shop address­es cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als, design afi­ciona­dos and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of com­pa­nies, research insti­tu­tions, and cul­tur­al institutions.

Free entry. Reg­is­tra­tion and details at mail [at] undesignunit.com

The work­shop is spon­sored by bay­ern design and the Bavar­i­an Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic Affairs, Region­al Devel­op­ment and Energy.