Aesthetics, new Materials, and efficient Functionality: The Environmentalist Agency of Marjan Van Aubel’s Objects

Summary

Marjan van Aubel is a designer from DesignLAB at Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam) and Master’s in Design Products from Royal College of Art (London). In the last few years she has received several awards, among the most important ones are “Designer of the future” (Winner, 2017), “Wired Innovation Award” (Winner, 2016) and “Swarovski Young Emerging Talent Medal” (Winner, 2015). Her work, which balances sustainability, materials and technology, stands out for its political reach that comes from it having been conceived to generate changes in awareness and habits of consumers. This article explores the different forms in which this impact operates by analysing the agency of objects in her projects Current Window (2015), Current Table (2014) and Well Proven Chair (2013).