Barcelona. Let’s do it again – recycle!

We’ve all wearily entered some hardwood studded office or a lavish corporate fair, designed to encourage us to forget the grind, economic woes, to buy, invest, network, and be generally impressed.  Internationally there are innumerable fairs and office renovations every week, the set up, break down, and maybe most importantly, the waste, isn’t really something the public considers.   What happens to all those temporary walls, the miles of carpeting, the signage?

Maam Project, based in Barcelona, realized the need and value of developing the sustainability of fairs and corporations, and they’ve done it with design in mind. Founded in 2009, Xavier Majoral and Charles Amadó established the project as means for companies to recycle their waste, such as carpeting, while turning it into environmentally friendly promotional products for their clients.

The maam project has three goals: to encourage social and economic responsibility, to custom design desirable items from the waste of the average corporation, and to collaborate with companies to position them as ecological, concerned and sustainable.  This last one, sustainability, is the cornerstone of the project, but producing desirable design from carpeting, isn’t without its challenges. Their first projects as a team involved collecting carpeting from fair grounds, cleaning it, and preparing it for production into maam products.  The actual production is done locally through work programmes in prisons and occupational workshops for the disabled.  The decision to stay local may initially result in higher labour costs, however, staying true to their vision, they state, “It is not socially or environmentally sustainable to produce in the other end of the world, just because labour costs there have yet to reach ours.”

The first line developed by childhood friends Majoral and Amadó, were briefcase bags for the Barcelona 080 fashion fair. In addition to being made from carpeting, which would have otherwise added to the local waste, the bags are both more durable and have less impact than plastic and paper bags.  It doesn’t hurt that they look better too.  Upcoming lines include office bags, jewellery, and sustainable wine bottles.

To learn more about the maam project and their upcoming projects visit their website.

If you’re headed to Barcelona, for a fair, or just to check out the distinct charm of the city, book a room at Hotel Omm.  It’s sleek, happening, and intelligent.

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Categories: Barcelona, Design, Events

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter