Blurring the line between biology and synthetics, the current crop of young designers are no longer content to simply apply the typical palette of plastic to their designs, but have instead firmly grasped the role of material developer within their own hands in order to seek out new and unexplored territories for experimentation.

 

Gone are the days where design was defined by the creative application of plastics in products, clothes, furniture and buildings. Today the design process has resulted in the dissecting and manipulation of nature through the cross breeding of grown materials with artificial substances, these designers or ‘new materiologists' are forging a unique new path for design and material innovation through solutions that will transform and shape the future.

 

However, this movement is not simply confined to the optimistic student realm but has in fact garnered huge prominence today within some of the world's leading and most innovative companies including both Nike and Apple.

 

Both of these corporate power-houses encourage and celebrate a hands-on approach to plastics and processing experimentation in order to explore and conceive radical new concepts - with Nike's ‘Innovation Kitchen' being an incubator for constructive play with all kinds of textiles, elastomers and foams that ultimately led to groundbreaking new waffle sole structure and Flyknit construction.

 

Although based on a completely different approach but equally experimental is Apple, who continue to showcase their hands-on innovation with plastics and large scale manufacturing every time they have a major product launch.

 

As part of the Design Chain conference at this year's K show here are five trends focusing on new uses of plastics by designers.

 

SMART PLASTICS

 

Scientists at the University of Technology Eindhoven have developed a plastic that lights up when it is stretched. A novel additive, called dioxetane, is encapsulated within the plastic which results in a soft, yellow glow when bonds are pulled apart and broken. Let go and this will relieve the tension to extinguish the light.

 

GREEN PLASTICS

 

According to Masami Lavault the Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 15 billion litres of milk are wasted in European households every year. From this waste Lavault proposes to produce plastic products using a form of compression moulding to form furniture. What is particular interesting about her “Milk of Human Kindness” project is that apart from being future looking it is based on past thinking, as one of the earliest forms of plastic were indeed based on extracting the proteins from milk to make what was known as casein. However, in her project the scale of the products is considerably larger than those early plastics of the 19th century.

 

TOUGH PLASTICS

 

Composites often provide the best strength-to-weight ratio compared to the alternatives, but on the downside they can't be recycled and reprocessed because the mix of materials isn't easily separated. Not so with Pure™; these self-reinforced polypropylene tapes, fabrics and sheets offer excellent impact protection and durability at a very low weight.

 

EVOCATIVE PLASTICS

 

Naoron™ is a soft and flexible leather paper textile derived from wood pulp and recycled PET fibre extracted from plastic bottles and textiles. This gives it the distinctive crinkled texture of paper yet it does not tear easily and is highly water-resistant. ONAO CO. LTD. teamed up with Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa to create the SIWA series, an eco-luxury range of bags, hats, and accessories.

 

NEW FORMING

 

The Faceture series consists of handmade faceted vessels and products individually produced on a manually operated machine of the maker's own design. A water-based resin is cast into a simple, handmade mould that is cut, folded and shaped from a flat sheet of plastic. The mould is then manually turned on the machine to create truly individual pieces that embody a completely unique and innovative processing technique that takes plastics out of mass production and into the field of craftsmanship.