Belgian premiere at WONDER Festival for impressive biobased installation by designer Arno Hoogland and Unilin

WONDER Creativity Festival kicked off yesterday. One of this year's highlights is the unique location Koramic House – close to Kortrijk station – as a hub for everything related to bio-based and circular innovations and design. This WONDER spot aims to inspire visitors to design with materials of biological origin, which are not harmful to the environment but actually contribute to its restoration. Imagine a world in which we build and create using what grows in nature: chairs made from fungal threads, packaging made from algae, walls reinforced with flax. Everything made from living materials that breathe, decay and are reborn.

The eye-catcher is the impressive installation 'Deus Ex Machina' by designer Arno Hoogland and Unilin, shown in Belgium for the very first time after premiering earlier this year at Milan Design Week.

For the installation, Arno Hoogland lets the CNC machine contribute ideas, help make decisions and even share the spotlight. The result is a futuristic temple, constructed from sculptural blocks of Unilin's Fibralux Biobased material: the world's first MDF board made from 100% recovered wood and vegetable glue. Arno does not see MDF as a conventional building material, but as a canvas full of potential.

The icing on the cake was Arno's nomination this week for the prestigious Designer of the Year Awards by Dezeen, one of the most influential international platforms in the field of architecture, design and interior design.

Many Belgian players are also presenting their own innovations. Hitch is presenting its new product at WONDER: Re' Hitch 'ed: Built to adapt, ready to grow. Hitch is a modular, circular interior system with reusable building blocks and connectors that allow spaces to be quickly and cost-effectively reconfigured and expanded with lighting, workstations, shelving and acoustic facilities. Visitors will also get to know BENDig, the circular materials shop. BENDig collects waste streams from companies, such as unused materials or cutting scraps, in a structured way and makes them available locally to designers, organisations, makers, students and creative people.

Visit Koramic House, Minister Tacklaan 85 during the WONDER Festival until 2 November, every Thursday to Sunday. wonder-festival.be

For more information and images, please contact lisa@designregio-kortrijk.be 056 51 91 83

The Echoes of the Earth exhibition is organised by Designregio Kortrijk as part of the international Building Based on Biobased (BOBB) project in collaboration with UGent Campus Kortrijk, and with the support of Interreg North Sea Region and the Province of West Flanders.