a new life for lost resources in Copenhagen
In the center of Copenhagen during the city’s annual 3daysofdesign festival, Project Materia returns with a new experimental material. Entitled Materia x Mater, the report gathers nine artists around Matek, a circular material developed by the Danish brand Mater from discarded coffee husks, sawdust and recycled plastic.
The project marks the second chapter of Project Materia, the platform founded by Tableau and Edition Solenne to explore how the materials it can shift between artistic practice, collecting design and cultural memory. Its 2025 version was worked in bronze, marble and glass. This year, the focus shifts away from heritage and towards a material compressed from waste, asking how a surface made through industrial reuse can enter the same conversation as stone.
image © Adam Katz Sinding
nine artists work with Matek by Mater
For the Copenhagen launch, each artist creates an object in Matek, giving Project Materia x Mater a common constraint that still leaves room for individual gestures. The cohort gathers Kathryn Raben Davidson, Sophie Dries, Willem van Hooff, Leah Colombo, Onno Adriaanse, Jacob Egeberg, Forever Studio, Filippo Andrigettoand Oliver Thygesenwhose practices span sculpture, architecture, photography, collectible furniture and craft-based construction.
Matek gives the work its overall line. Developed by Mater, the material combines coffee production residues and sawdust from the wood industry with recycled plastic or a plastic-based alternative, and then forms it through established furniture industry techniques. Its surface resembles stone, marble or terrazzo at first glance, yet its composition brings the viewer closer to a reuse chain, where food waste, wood dust and plastic get a second natural life.
Willem van Hooff, File cabinet (front), Forever Studio, Patos stool (left), Sophie Dries, Stria candlesticks (right). image © designboom
between industrial process and collective design
The strength of Project Materia x Mater comes from the tension between a common material and the very different ways it can be manipulated. by Raben Davidsen Parsifal screen is shaped by her background in painting and ceramics, while a couple Streak Dries candlesticks are “domestic totems”.
Van Hooff carves his personal sketches into his own File office as a thoughtful tribute to his own problems and life experiences. Adriaanse comes closest to the rough sculptural form with his Pyrite side tablewhich mimics the natural phenomenon of crystal twinning.
Other projects extend Matek into more spatial or atmospheric territory. of Colombo ATOM Stools take shape from interlocking flower-like shapes, while Forever Studio has blackened Ducks stool refers to the sturdiness of tree trunks. THE Monolith Copenhagen-based Jacob Egeberg’s painting suggests a brutalist-inspired block assemblage.
Meanwhile Oliver Thygesen Rooted The table incorporates Douglas Fir and stands on a cluster of rounded legs. Finally, with the illustrated visual language of Andrighetto Space invader The side table is inspired by the iconic 1978 video game.
Oliver Thygesen, Rooted table (left), Raben Davidsen, Parsifal screen (right). image © designboom
a circular material enters the gallery space
Within the ground-floor setting at Købmagergade 3, Copenhagen, the project places material derived from waste in the language of collective design, without turning circularity into a slogan. The material is dense and visually familiar enough to evoke comparison with stone.
However, its history resists the usual romance of the quarry, the furnace or the foundry. It comes from existing resources, then takes form through pressure, molding, and the hands of artists begs to be treated as a medium and not just a substitute.
After debuting in Copenhagen during 3daysofdesign, Materia x Mater will travel to Paris in fall 2026, then London in 2026 or 2027, before continuing to the United States in 2027.
This tour gives the project a wider context at a time when design culture is taking a hard look at how materials are sourced, valued and given presence.
Filippo Andrighetto, Space Invader. image © designboom
Oliver Thygesen, Table with Roots. image © designboom
