Material Matters opens its doors this week for the first time at London Design Festival 2022. Based on the critically acclaimed podcast of the same name, this new design fair brings together over 40 world-leading brands, designers, makers and organisations to celebrate the importance of materials and their ability to shape our lives, addressing issues around the circular economy and why material intelligence is so vital to all our lives.

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As the official acoustic partner for Material Matters 2022, The Collective presents two installations. With every business decision made with sustainability at its core, the installations focus solely on material education and waste reduction, with all acoustic materials sourced strictly from production offcuts and items that are at end-of-life.

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THE THEATRE OF OFFCUTS

Main Talks Area

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In the main talks area, The Collective introduce a bespoke acoustic presentation solely using end-of-life pieces and offcuts from the manufacturing process of their core acoustic material, EchoPanel® by Woven Image. Organic shapes create an acoustic canopy of warm colours and structures, which add softness and acoustic absorption to the hard materials in the striking Oxo Bargehouse fourth-floor space. These then partner with 'stacks' of EchoPanel® around the stage area, which create both a visual partition and seating perches. There were no new EchoPanel® pieces used or this installation, strictly offcuts.

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EchoPanel® from Woven Image is the core acoustic material used at The Collective due to its exceptional eco-credentials. EchoPanel® is the pioneer of recycled PET acoustic material. It is made from post-consumer PET bottles and has prevented 30.3 million plastic bottles from entering landfills or our oceans. EchoPanel® is patent-protected and is the market leader with its unrivalled sustainability credentials. The Collective are the UK exclusive distributor for Woven Image

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The eclectic programme of talks taking place at Material Matters features some of the most provocative names in architecture, design and craft, including LAYER founder Benjamin Hubert, Bethan Laura Wood, Nigel Coates, Adam Nathaniel Furman, curator and future researcher Caroline Till, Naomi Cleaver, Ella Doran, and Michael Marriott.

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Programme details: materialmatters.design/Talks

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'HOW TO LIVE AND BREATHE SUSTAINABLE DESIGN'
by Ravensbourne University London and The Collective

In support of the future generation of designers, The Collective has partnered with Ravensbourne University London since 2021. Providing design mentoring and project support, The Collective regularly supplies students with EchoPanel® offcuts for material exploration and learning and to facilitate the re-use of waste material. 'How to live and breathe sustainable design' presents a selection of works from a Year 1 'BA Product Design' project focusing on material exploration, sustainable learning and responsibility. The student's brief was to design a new product from EchoPanel® offcut waste material, the pioneer of recycled PET. Using a material-led design approach, the students researched extensively by exploring and manipulating EchoPanel® to understand its properties and characteristics. The students immersed themselves in the material and its capabilities, pushing the boundaries through cutting, shredding and even laminating.

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Presenting the following works.

• La Silenciosa by Marta Manzano Brogeras
• Echo H by Euan Ferguson
• Peace Pod by Rose Lwin
• Flo Glo by Jakob Timerdahl
• Memory Card Game Alysso Zagorianakou

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Each solution celebrated the re-use of the material resulting in viable concepts and iterative prototypes for EchoPanel® while appreciating the enormous responsibilities a designer has in the materials they specify.

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The Collective are proud to support the future generation of designers. We congratulate Euan Ferguson, who won a two-week internship in the design department at The Collective due to his extensive investigation and understanding of the core material during this project. We thank Euan for his contribution to the Material Matters installation by The Collective.

Material Matters takes place at the iconic Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf on London's Southbank https://materialmatters.design/The-Fair.

Register in advance for free admission.