Alternative Materials Impacting Manufacturing Processes
Design and aesthetics combined have the power to strongly influence a material into a product people actually choose at volume – this is the real driver of impactful scale. A few examples seen at Milano Design Week 2026 confirm this statement. Kastamonu Italia, a wood panel company, has created a collection of surfaces with unexpected raw materials proving that circular ingredients can be desirable enough to scale into everyday use. Similarly, ST Powder Coating conceives new surface effects that give designers and architects the creative freedom to specify sustainable coatings for a wide range of aesthetic applications. Lastly, Versalis, a manufacturer of composites, has developed a bioplastics collection with designer Giulio Iacchetti, demonstrating how beauty and desirability can help sustainable materials transcend niche applications and enter the mainstream market.
Kastamonu Italia: From Waste to Want
Designed for furniture and interior design, Kastamonu Italia represents a balance between functional performance and material expression in the wood panel industry. The panels presented during Milano Design Week are made from 100% post-consumer recycled wood, a material that has already lived a previous life and is reprocessed to transmit a new design language. Each panel is formed by a controlled industrial process that alters recovered wood and materials such as coffee and hemp, into a resource while maintaining quality, durability, and visual cohesion.
Kastamonu Italia’s collection of revitalized materials are panels defined by dimensional stability and provide a versatile palette that unlocks endless customization and design freedom. Textures, colors, and reflections of the material offer suitable solutions for commercial, residential, and retail spaces. Kastamonu Italia’s 100% recycled core and the decorative surfaces coexist to highlight the intersection of sustainable technology and design to produce a panel that can do it all.
ST Powder Coatings: A Spectrum of Surfaces
ST Powder coatings are traditionally used to coat metal substrates and available in tailormade formulations for a multitude of applications. This year’s design week proved to be a platform of play for powder coated textures made to emulate a series of “states of matter”. Presented in varying organic cloudlike orbs, surfaces ranged from smooth, wrinkled, shiny to matte and glittered. Each finish proved to engage a different sensory element, inviting visitors to touch, look closer, and rethink what a coated surface can feel and look like.
The aesthetics presented highlight the tension between familiarity and experimentation creating versatile design combinations for multiple environments. This highlights the concept that a single technology can speak many visual languages at once. The adaptability of ST Powder Coating’s technology spans countless design worlds, reminding us that scale isn’t just about volume, but about a material’s ability to fit anywhere it’s needed.
ReUp® by Versalis: The Beauty of Circularity
ReUp® is the Versalis brand (Eni’s chemical company) dedicated to the world of home furnishings, offering products made entirely or in part from reclaimed plastics or alternative raw materials. These pieces emphasize functionality, elegance, and champion greater sustainability.
ReUp® presented Opaline, a new collection designed by Giulio Iacchetti, in an unforgettable tribute to lightness and form. The collection grew out of the material qualities of renewable and recycled raw material, whose surface radiates a milky luminosity. This new offering aims to respond to the growing demand for environmentally-considered solutions within the furnishing sector, offering functional design objects that combine material research, aesthetic quality, and attention to market requirements.
The tabletop objects presented included goblets, jugs, centerpieces, and vases – all featuring fluid lines with subtle transparencies. The visual dynamism, combined with timeless aesthetics and innovative material technology, demonstrates how impactful scale can come from transforming existing industrial systems, processes, and materials into beautiful, circular possibilities.
Looking to create new opportunities for your innovative material solutions? Get in touch with Materially’s advisory team.
