The

Age of Consciousness

Humans today extract and use around 50% more natural resources than 30 years ago, equating to around 60 billion tonnes of raw materials per year, generating 2.2 billion tonnes of household waste, and this is expected to double by 2050.

In our consumer driven society, our buying behaviours are causing the planet to deteriorate at an exponential rate - we are living in the Age of Over-Consumption. Today’s global production does not fully operate on a sustainable model, instead we are over exploiting nature without truly collaborating with it.

Businesses tend to optimise for profit, failing to

consider the wider and larger impact of our activities, which over time can lead to catastrophic consequences like climate change.

We know design can equally be both the creation and destruction of life. Today, it is not enough to just design without conscious forethought.

The Age of. Consciousness seeks to address the near future, in pursuit of a new design landscape, where nurture nature, nature made and ecological models underpins the ethos of design practice.

The selected designers showcased in the project takes seriously the idea that our engagement

with the world have real consequences, not only for other humans but our planetary cohabitants as well.

From Bolt Thread's latest material offerings, where biological fabrication replaces traditional manufacture in the creation of Stella McCartney’s spider silk dress. To zero waste systems such as Granby Workshops latest ceramic collection made from 100% waste.

We hope to inspire a more conscious way of living and to foster a more meaningful approach to how we consume, where luxury isn’t about creating excess, but instead reducing it.