HYDRO: 7 top designers showcase objects made from revolutionary aluminium product

At Milan Design Week 2024, world-leading Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company Hydro presented the ground-breaking 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.

Hydro is fully committed to leading the way to a more sustainable metal industry, and 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 will 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.

He explains that the designers were chosen for their specific skill sets and personalities. His strategy was to create a strong and clear framework and then offer the designers complete freedom to create within these predefined parameters.

“Innovation starts at the drawing board, so collaborating with designers at the beginning of the process is key to creating something remarkable. No one is better fit to showcase the potential in extrusion manufacturing and aluminium than today’s top designers. Working with Lars and this group of world-class designers, with their uncompromised ideas, is something out of the ordinary, and shows what we can achieve. When designers, engineers and material specialists unite, is when the innovation happens,” says Asle Forsbak, 100R project lead and Marketing & Communication Director at Hydro Extrusions.

He adds that the only challenge they put on the designers was to use mono-material thinking in designing purely from extruded aluminium.

“It is amazing how the challenge was tackled,” says Forsbak. “By using smart production techniques, you can see great functionality, rational designs and production processes, and even organic forms, which provide a surprising effect. It was liberating to give full freedom to the designers to create virtually anything. And even more so to see our engineers help them realize their ideas, making products that are ready to be mass-produced tomorrow.”