Opening "What A Waste" Exhibition at Danish Architecture Center

The “What A Waste” exhibition has opened at the Danish Architecture Center in collaboration with THE UPCYCL. Running from June 7th to October 29th, 2023, the exhibition is titled "What A Waste" and focuses on solutions to one of the world's most complex problems: industrial waste and overproduction of materials.

"What A Waste" addresses the challenge where millions of tons of 'New Waste' materials end up in landfills each year without ever being used. These materials are entirely unused, uniform, and reliable, yet they still become waste.

The exhibition presents solutions created by companies that use these residual materials in their supply chains instead of newly produced materials.

Visitors to the exhibition can explore different types of New Waste Materials from the Danish industry and be inspired on how these materials can be used by designers, creators, architects, and developers. The exhibition aims to change thinking, practices, and processes in understanding a circular approach to materials.

Among the members and cases represented in the exhibition, there are some remarkable examples. One of them is the FM 630 stool, designed by Friis & Moltke and relaunched by Anno Studio. The stool's legs are made from residual cuts from the industrial production of hand trucks. Steel tubes for hand trucks are delivered in fixed lengths, leaving leftovers that would otherwise become waste. Anno Studio has managed to make the stool's legs from these residual materials without compromising Friis & Moltke's classic design.

Another example is Rhombeparket, a flooring system designed by WhyNature and made from rejected wood from Wiking Gulve's primary production. Normally, wood pieces with knots would be sorted out and discarded. But the Rhombeparket floor system is designed to recycle this rejected wood from Wiking Gulve's production, reducing waste and resource consumption.

An essential part of the exhibition is the New Waste materials available to students in the Materiale Shop at the Royal Academy. These materials, which are leftovers and cuttings from industrial production, are supplied to the material shop by several of THE UPCYCL's member companies and offered to students at an affordable price. In this way, the Royal Academy encourages students to use these materials in their projects and highlights the importance of reducing the consumption of new materials.

An exciting collaborative project that is also part of the exhibition is "The Stool". This collaboration between eight design companies showcases 13 different designs of the same stool, all made from residual materials. By conducting CO2 calculations for each stool, this furniture collaboration provides transparency about the stool's environmental footprint and shows that industry collaboration and responsible production are the way forward.

Finally, visitors can admire the modular and circular shelving system designed by Studio Mathias Falkenstrøm, which is based entirely on residual materials from THE UPCYCL's member companies. This shelving system demonstrates a significant degree of resource utilization while reducing waste and emissions.

With the "What A Waste" exhibition, THE UPCYCL aims to inspire everyone to be reflective regarding design, production, and consumption, and encourages changes in our thinking, practices, and processes to move towards a more circular approach to materials.

Visit the Danish Architecture Center from June 7th to October 29th, 2023, to experience this inspiring exhibition that shows how we can upcycle materials to create a more sustainable future.