From a cup of coffee to a bowl made of coffee

Currently we are at the Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial trade show. We have a booth at the special exhibition called Materials Café, which is an initiative by Thomas Bade (Universal Design Germany), Tim Oelker (Tim Oelker Industrial Design) and Aart van Bezooyen (Material Stories). The event is being powered by the Hannover Messe, Zieta Prozessdesign and the Leibniz University Hanover. The Materials Café is an over 300 square meter exhibition of materials, products and services to inspire and enable more intelligent and sustainable innovation.

It is very exciting to see how innovative design has become today. It is no longer just about good looks or good overall ergonomics.

In many conversations at our booth with young designers, I keep hearing that today’s product design requires much more engineering expertise than in the past. And it seems that wood plays a big role as a building material; a designer from Indonesia is even presenting wooden radios! But there are not only innovative goods made from renewable primary production on exhibit at Materials Café, there are also goods manufactured from waste. Who would have thought that coffee can be recycled? Sprout Design, from the Netherlands, does exactly that by manufacturing plates and bowls made from 100% recycled coffee.

Until the end of this week you can still marvel at this and other innovations (Materials Café, hall 6, booth B 54). Of course, our IFU Hamburg employees also await your visit!

Article image by Aart van Benzooyen