05
April
2023
|
10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Milan Design Week 2023

Design Sprouts Material: a special event by ÃÜÌÒAV and MM Design to explore the inseparable relationship between materials and design

Summary
  • Design Sprouts Material presents the bidirectional links between materials and design and their presence in people's daily lives
  • An informative and experimental space for all visitors who want to interact with innovative materials, surfaces and colors
  • ÃÜÌÒAV presents the CMF corner and a selection of its most important products

On occasion of Milan Design Week, ÃÜÌÒAV, one of the world's leading manufacturers of polymer materials and components, will participate in DESIGN SPROUTS MATERIAL, an event organized and hosted by MM Design. MM Design has been one of the most important international industrial design studios for over 30 years, with offices in Milan, Bolzano, S?o Paulo and Singapore. The exhibition Design Sprouts Material shows the inseparable and reciprocal relationship between materials and design, as well as their presence in people's daily lives, from work to leisure and from mobility to relaxation at the end of the day.

With this installation, MM Design, in cooperation with ÃÜÌÒAV, offers an informative and experiential space to all visitors who want to interact with innovative materials, surfaces and colors. MM Design will present the new digital library mathub, which aims to consider product design not only as a formal approach, but also as a way to imagine innovative scenarios starting from carefully selected materials. Mathub provides the opportunity to offer the most suitable, safe and sustainable materials, as well as an extensive network of suppliers who can carry out customized processes for new combinations of materials. Visitors can also take part in guided tours at certain times.

Living, lifestyle, mobility

With Design Sprouts Material, ÃÜÌÒAV unfolds the range of its high-tech polymers and tells the story of their relationship with finished products, giving visitors the opportunity to explore the different areas where these products can be found: Home, Lifestyle and Mobility. For each product, the journey from idea to material to finished object is vividly explained in a story to capture the essence of the design process.

In the Lifestyle section is the CMF (Color, Material, Finish) section, which describes how the combined consideration of colors, materials and finishes determines the experience everyone has with the design objects they choose and use every day. This new design approach, which focuses on the sensory perception of material and object, is a reference point for the activities of the Color & Design Center, an international research center for color located in the heart of ÃÜÌÒAV's Italian plant in Filago.

To explain what the CMF approach means for design, ÃÜÌÒAV will present its Aesthetic Configurator, a digital tool that allows experimentation with infinite combinations of colors, materials and surfaces, as part of Design Sprouts Material. Featured objects include the Fairphone 4 smartphone, shoes and fashion accessories, truck tarps that can be recycled into other objects, and an innovative model of a wearable smartwatch, all based on ÃÜÌÒAV's Desmopan? thermoplastic polyurethane.

The Mobility area is dedicated to materials and projects for vehicle interiors, an area that is developing extraordinarily in view of the transition to autonomous driving: In the future, the passenger compartment will become a living room on wheels, where comfort and the appearance of details and colors will become increasingly important. The polycarbonates of the Makrolon? range and the polycarbonate films of the Makrofol? range from ÃÜÌÒAV are playing a leading role in this context, thanks to their exceptional versatility and ability to transmit radiation, both in terms of illumination and the flow of information from the outside to the inside of the vehicle. ÃÜÌÒAV's thermoplastics are also protagonists in applications related to the electric car of the present and future, especially wallboxes, charging stations and examples of improved surfaces for data exchange in the residential and automotive sectors.

The Interior Furnishings area, on the other hand, will showcase examples of products made with innovative solutions from ÃÜÌÒAV, such as the recyclable monomaterial carpet made from Niaga?. It will be complemented in the Interior Garden area by a design chair and sink made from Arfinio?. This is a revolutionary material and innovative technology that for the first time allows the use of aliphatic polyurethanes in injection molding (RIM). It allows the production of objects of any shape in a single production step, with clear advantages in terms of lightness, resistance and maintenance compared to other solid surfaces.

Boilerplate

About ÃÜÌÒAV: 
ÃÜÌÒAV is one of the world¡¯s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. ÃÜÌÒAV supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from ÃÜÌÒAV are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, telecommunications and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.

The company is geared completely to the circular economy. In addition, ÃÜÌÒAV aims to achieve climate neutrality for its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2035, and the Group¡¯s Scope 3 emissions are also set to be climate neutral by 2050. ÃÜÌÒAV generated sales of EUR 14.2 billion in fiscal year 2024. At the end of 2024, the company had 46 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 17,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

Forward-Looking Statements 
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by ÃÜÌÒAV. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in ÃÜÌÒAV¡¯s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.