Nothing Happens if Nothing Happens, the theme of Isola Design Festival 2023

We’ve come to a critical time in history where designing for energy efficiency and low environmental impact requires taking immediate actions, not just words

Moving forward: no more designing for disposal 

It’s hard to attribute a consistent meaning to the term ‘sustainability’ after it’s been thrown around in so many contexts. Designing for energy efficiency and for low environmental impact requires to choose materials and products with a low environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle from extraction, production, transportation and processing. 

All the way through to how they are discarded after use, as long as they are responsibly sourced. More than considering all the sustainable options and practices out there, the industry should be inspired to rethink, regenerate, and remediate to the damages done, to make a strong link between the conservation of resources and cost savings.

By 2030, the new framework proposed by the European Commission can lead to 132 million tons of primary energy savings, which corresponds to around 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas, almost the equivalent of the EU importing Russian gas. The proposal lists new requirements to make products more durable, reliable, reusable, repairable, easier to maintain. In addition, the inclusion of a ‘digital passport’, introduced for all regulated products, to facilitate the traceability of the substances used along the supply chain.

Isola Design Festival during Milano Design Week 2023

The need for shaping new guidelines extends to the design industry by rethinking the processes and production systems, regenerating natural resources and waste along with ethical morals.

The 7th edition of Isola Design Festival, organized by the digital and physical design platform Isola, will welcome visitors during Milan Design Week, April 18^th to 23^rd. Isola Design Festival 2023 with the theme ‘Nothing Happens if Nothing Happens’ delves into the realm of regeneration, by making it the focus of its forthcoming edition. 

Multiple venues within and beyond the Isola Design District will host more than 25 exhibitions and installations, lively events and a series of talks, involving over 200 international designers, design studios, creators, and manufacturers. The founders call on all designers and studios to start a chain reaction to come together and go beyond sustainable design thinking to make something positive happen. 

Isola is the first physical and digital platform in the world that gives visibility to independent designers and design studios, putting them in contact with industry professionals, companies, curators, journalists and potential clients. Isola has organized events as part of the Isola Design Festival, the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and, recently, the Downtown Design in Dubai.

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Isola Design Festival 2023. The actors involved: events and exhibitions

The discussion is open: which of the design practices haven’t worked so far, and what else could be done for those practices to become precious tools not only on an ideal prospective but also from an economic point of view?

Among the collective exhibitions, special collaborations curated by Isola: Circolare – The Circular Village, at Regione Lombardia, with the layout designed by Amsterdam-based Studio MAST, the biggest circular exhibition currently at Milan Design Week, showcasing materials and products made with natural resources or industrial waste, with a minimum environmental impact in terms of production.

 Tools & Crafts, at Fondazione Catella, hosting a new generation of artisans who use traditional tools and techniques to create contemporary products; Take Care! Of your mind, body, and environment, sponsored by Monkey 47 at Stecca3, an immersive exhibit curated by Tellurico, promoting projects that focus on individuals’ well-being; 

Isola Design Gallery, celebrating handmade and collectible pieces made by independent designers and studios, including The Dutch Corner curated by Wisse Trooster; Under Design Lebanon, curated by Ghassan Salameh, in collaboration with BitsToAtoms and hosted by the association VIAFARINI, and lastly, Innovation for Living, enlarging Isola’s borders to a new area of Milan, the Certosa District, with an exhibition hosted in a 3.000sqm industrial space and dedicated to industrial design and technology, with a layout designed by Pininfarina Architecture.

Reflecting on design as an essential component in people’s lives 

The focus is on materials and design projects whose prerogative is a minimum impact in terms of production; hence natural raw materials, biomaterials, and functional design pieces born from industry waste will be featured. Also, the projects of designers and artisans who use traditional tools and techniques to create contemporary design pieces.  

With part of the scenography designed in collaboration with Stephanie Blanchard (co-founder of IAMMI Studio), Stecca3 will host an immersive exhibit that testifies how design is an essential component in people’s lives to improve its quality.  

Designing sustainably means actions, not just words 

They explain the theme through a clear manifesto and call to action, aimed at all members of their community to think beyond the mere concept of sustainability. Human activity has left a gigantic and dangerous footprint. What now? We have progressively used and consumed our planet’s natural resources; countless solutions have been proposed, discussed, but it always seems like these processes aren’t reliable enough to involve the global community. 

«We need new guidelines for the design industry by rethinking the processes and production systems, regenerating natural resources and waste, and somehow remediating the harm we have done», says Elif Resitoglu, co-founder of Isola with Gabriele Cavallaro.

All the events leading to Milano Design Week 2023

Every year, in conjunction with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, staged in the pavilions of Rho Fiera, the city of Milan is enlivened by hundreds of Fuorisalone events, organized in different areas of the city and which give life to Milano Design in April. This year’s edition of Fuorisalone, entitled Laboratorio Futuro, marks a point on  how we imagine our future, in relation to the times we are living in. An opportunity to spark a debate on constructive alternative ideas through moments of collective dialogue, to focus on opportunities and critical issues, but also contradictions of evolution. 

From the climate crisis to the energy crisis, the consequences of the war and political instability: all phenomenon are closely connected to each other and they’re faced with the aim of bringing visitors and citizen closer to these issues making the case for sustainable design, the approach on circular economy, innovation in materials, urban regeneration and artificial intelligence.

Isola 

A physical and digital platform that gives visibility to independent designers and design studios. Founded in 2017 in Milan, is one of the main areas of the Milan Design Week, with particular attention to international and emerging designers. 

Martina Tondo