What if…
…innovation was made by subtracting?
…we removed CO2 from atmosphere?
…waste were turned into materials?
…we consumed fewer fossil resources to live?
…we did better with less?

Urban Matter(s) -  Material Reduction for a Lighter City is the concept as well as the name of the collective exhibition born from these questions curated by Materially for the next Milano Design Week. These questions represent the core of Materially mission: the implementation of a circular economy through materials and the growth of a culture of sustainability applied to all business activities.

Through Urban Matter(s), Materially deepens the reflection together with a selected group of companies, with the aim of offering designers and citizens material scenarios, processes and innovative solutions applied or applicable to the everyday and urban dimension. The starting point - rather than narrative, ambitious and concrete - is to imagine a light city, in which quality is measured by subtracting negative elements, with materials capable of responding to the needs of the contemporary.

There are four areas of the exhibition around which virtuous stories will be aggregated:

• Carbon Revolution - Reduce, stem, break down
• Breathing Quality - Protect, filter, purify
• Resourceful Waste - Limit, rethink, transform
• City Skin - Change, update, dress, refine

Themes, but above all planning and production actions that show the way towards a more human and community-friendly future. Urban Matter (s) certainly intends to open a reflection but also to provide some concrete answers to the issues highlighted, especially through the materials and processes proposed by the selected exhibiting companies, including: Circularity, Conceria Nuvolari, Covestro, FENIX, Geocycle Italia, Haiki+, Holcim Italia, Marcegaglia Digital Print, MM, Organoid, Poliuretano è, SAATIstyle, Saxa Gres, ST Powder Coatings, YKK, Zero Motorcycles, Arrosia, Bioforcetech, Coffeefrom, Gees Recycling, Mixcycling, NaturLoop, Nazena, Rice House, Verabuccia.

The themes of the exhibition will also be explored through meetings and dialogues: three on-site and online talks are scheduled, which will see the participation of experts, designers, companies and administrators engaged in the search for solutions relating to the proposed matters.

The talks will be held in the exhibition spaces, according to the following calendar:

• Monday 6 June, 17: 00-18: 00
  Resourceful Waste - Limiting waste and converting it into projects
• Wednesday 8 June 17: 00-18: 00
  Carbon Revolution - Reduce emissions and reinvent processes
• Friday 10 June 17: 00-18: 00
  City Skin - Lighten gaze and promote performance

The coherence of the project with the theme of circularity and the point of view of reduction as a virtuous action is also expressed, finally, in the use (and post-use) of all the elements of the layout of the exhibition, starting with the choice of materials used for the preparation. All the space dedicated to the exhibition, for example, will be delimited by a particular fabric, the Breath, by the Italian startup Anemotech, which incorporates a technology capable of absorbing, blocking and breaking down the polluting molecules present in the atmosphere. The recycling and reuse of all the objects, furnishings and materials on display is also envisaged, guaranteeing them a second life and avoiding their disposal in landfills.