Illustrating the sheer versatility of our sustainable surfaces is our latest collaboration with global built environment publication, The Architectural Review. We have applied our unique process of innovation to create a set of trophies for the AR Emerging awards 2023 – an event that puts a spotlight on the world’s up-and-coming architectural talent – the ‘stars of tomorrow’.
The winners of awards, the highly commended practice and the Peter Davey Prize will receive a one-of-a-kind trophy designed and crafted by our team and made from 98% recycled material. All 15 practices who are shortlisted will be given a special token created from some of the experiments and trials we used to develop the awards.
Such a celebration of ingenuity required an equal dose of inventiveness on our part. As such, we put our materials to the test to push them in a brand-new direction…
The development process
When we first embark on a new project, we begin with a testing period. Depending on the application, our processes and recipes may need to be tweaked to produce the best outcome.
For the trophies’ design, we decided on a rectangular slab with embossed lettering, reading ‘AR Emerging’. To bring this concept to life, we started by making a mould from thick coated plywood. This coating allowed our material to slide off, making the demoulding process a painless one.
The same plywood - with some steel added for reinforcement - was also used to create a press head. This provided the basis for attaching a rubber stamp with the ‘AR Emerging’ logo. The material itself consisted of glass, porcelain, and clay – our sustainable Alusid mix - but slightly modified to increase the clay element, and other fine particles, while reducing moisture to enable the text to be retained when the awards were pressed.
