Young Swiss designers in Milan for a week
This content was published on June 03, 2022 – 10:00
(Keystone-ATS)
Nine studios will represent Swiss design in Milan from 6 to 12 June. Visitors discovered objects such as an intelligent roasting automaton or furniture made from brewery waste.
Lausanne-based studio Niederhauser is one of seven studios Pro Helvetia has selected for Milan Design Week. It is to Noémie Niederhauser that we owe these coffee tables, made from leftover cereals from beer production.
This waste, produced in very large quantities, is given to animals in the countryside, but not in town. It is also possible to make bioethanol from it, “but for the moment, there is too much waste compared to demand”. And the brewers have to pay to get rid of it.
circuit court
One thing leading to another, the 37-year-old young woman, trained in ceramic design in Vevey and in visual arts in London, considered this material to be interesting. And wondered how to reinject this product into the circuit.
Noémie Niederhauser dries it, grinds it and uses organic binders. An important point because she wants all the elements used to be ecological, she told Keystone-ATS. And by pressure, she then manages to make boards or shapes with more relief.
This ecological concern is not new for the designer. In particular, she is developing packaging (packaging), made from cereal and mushroom residues, in connection with a women’s cooperative in Senegal, which cultivates mushrooms.
Prototypes in Milan
All the projects presented in Milan are prototypes. “A very beautiful platform” for Noémie Niederhauser, who teaches in parallel at the School of Arts in Bern and at the CEPV in Vevey after a stint at EPFL with architecture students.
With the coffee tables, the designer, who has also set up an art space in Athens, would like to show the potential of this material. If Milan keeps its promises, it may have orders to produce limited series objects.
Because one of the challenges of this Milan meeting is to connect emerging international Swiss designers with the markets.
The projects that Pro Helvetia has selected this year revolve around the question “how do living spaces evolve to adapt to our constantly changing society?” In addition to the coffee tables by Noémie Niederhauser, visitors will be able to discover a extendable stool that can be transformed into a bench or even a hand-woven carbon fiber screen.
“House of Switzerland”
This is the fourth time that Pro Helvetia has organized the participation of young designers in Milan. And for the first time, the institutions that embody Swiss design will be brought together under one roof, the “House of Switzerland” at Casa Degli Artisti (Brera). Federal Councilor Alain Berset will be there on June 6.
All of the selected studios are: Alexandra Gerber Studio (London), Marc Gerber Design (Bern), Renaud Defrancesco Studio (Lausanne), Salienti (Zurich), Shizuka Saito (Geneva), Sébastien El Idrissi and Mikafi (Zurich), Studio Eidola (Zurich), Studio Niederhauser (Lausanne) and Vevig (Geneva).