Seven designers explore low carbon aluminium

At Milan Design Week 2024, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company Hydro presents the exhibition 100R – a celebration of Hydro CIRCAL 100R, the world’s first industrial-scale aluminium product made entirely of post-consumer scrap. To showcase the material’s vast possibilities, Hydro has gathered a team of seven renowned designers to create objects from this revolutionary aluminium. The new Hydro CIRCAL 100R recycled aluminium product boasts a record-low carbon footprint of below 0.5 kg CO2e per kg aluminum. Visitors to the 100R exhibition at Milan Design Week get to see how aluminium scrap can be turned into pristine-looking design objects – ready for mass production – while paving the way for the green transition. Hydro aims to use this project to challenge the perception of aluminium and move the needle, inspiring more designers and brands to consider this highly sustainable material.

Hydro put Norwegian designer Lars Beller Fjetland in charge of art direction, concept development and strategy for the 100R exhibition. He enlisted designers Inga Sempé, Max Lamb, Andreas Engesvik, Shane Schneck, Rachel Griffin, John Tree and Philippe Malouin, to create design objects made entirely from Hydro’s new recycled aluminium product. “With this project, we acknowledge that we are moving toward a future where utilizing materials already in circulation is imperative for sustainable living and manufacturing. Hydro CIRCAL 100R precisely facilitates that, as aluminium can be endlessly recycled without any loss of quality. I am confident that we will continue to use this exact material a hundred years from now,” says Beller Fjetland.