Greeting thousands of visitors at Milan Design Week 2024, StudioXAG created an opportunity to come face-to-face with our planet and consider how our actions as designers can change Earth’s story for the better.

You couldn’t miss the Hello, Earth Speaking installation at the Superdesign Show in Milan, standing out with a supersized blue Earth taking centre stage.

Created using Polygood®, a 100% recycled and recyclable material from The Good Plastic Company, StudioXAG designed the concept to prove that waste plastic can be used for good. The collaboration sought to show how the design industry can work in tandem with the Earth, not against it.

The installation represents the collaborators’ shared desire to transform current design practices into sustainable choices. Visitors were invited to step inside to join the conversation and take steps towards embracing the circular economy.

To embed the core message, StudioXAG integrated an interactive element into the space. Around the base of the Earth’s podium read ‘Dear Humans, how can we design a brighter future?’ This was echoed across other touchpoints around the space.

Surrounding the Earth were postcards that asked this same question. Attendees were encouraged to take a pencil and write back to Earth, and open a dialogue as to how their actions as designers can impact Earth in a positive way.

Free from virgin materials, Polygood® is made from recycled post-industrial and post-consumer waste. That’s refrigerators, CD cases, industrial tubes, keyboards and more. To tell this story, StudioXAG designed podiums that housed examples of plastic waste items as well as the resulting Polygood samples.

Polygood is also Cradle-to-cradle certified and therefore the entire exhibition will be broken down and reused following the show.

The architecture and design (A&D) sector accounts for up to 9% of global CO2 footprint. A building’s interior furniture, fixtures, and equipment are responsible for up to 25% of a building’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The installation looked to raise awareness for this and to advocate for designers and architects to embrace circular design, create less waste, with fewer virgin materials and a longer material lifespan, bettering our industry and the planet.