Mitsui Chemicals Group’s MOLp™ Group-Wide Open Laboratory Activities to Make First Appearance at MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2025 (Brera Design District)
2025.03.24
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) will sponsor of the brand "130(One Thirty)" exhibit of MagnaRecta Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo, Tokyo; CEO: YAMAGAI Kaori) at the world's largest design event "MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2025 (Brera Design District) *" to be held in Milan, Italy from April 7 to April 13, 2025. And MOLp™ (MOL, Material Attractiveness Laboratory Activities - a voluntary cross-organizational employee activities of the Mitsui Chemicals Group) will exhibit for the first time at MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2025, the MagnaRecta exhibition site along Via Solferino in the Brera district, will exhibit designs that show how new technology can be used to draw new value out of the inherent appeal of materials.
*MILAN DESIGN WEEK is held in Milan, Italy, is the world’s largest design exhibition. Exhibitors at the event range from furniture, interior design and fashion brands to automotive, household appliance and materials manufacturers, each providing insight into unique worldviews and possibilities for the future. The event spans more than 1,000 locations across Milan.
■ Overview of MOLp™
Operating since 2015, MOLp™ is a group-wide open laboratory activities in which Mitsui Chemicals Group employees can participate on a voluntary basis. The activities combine materials and technologies into creations with not just functional value but also aesthetic appeal, then communicates in a way that lets people experience and understand those creations intuitively, without any technical jargon. Ideas and concepts generated through MOLp™’s activities are shared for the betterment of society and the world as a whole.
Since its inception, MOLp™ has welcomed MTDO inc.’s TAGO Manabu as a creative partner and has explored the potential for new relationships between society, people and materials in line with the “Fusion of Intuition and Science” concept behind MOLp™’s creation. For its appearance at MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2025, MOLp™ will exhibit four products it previously displayed at last autumn’s MOLpCafé2024 in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo.
Overview of the exhibit
Date: April 8, 2025 (Tuesday) – April 13, 2025 (Sunday)
Location: 24 Via Solferino, Brera Design District (within MagnaRecta’s 130 (OneThirty) exhibit)
Products to be exhibited
MOLp™ will exhibit four products previously displayed last October and November in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, for its solo exhibit "MOLpCafé2024: MATSURIAL (MATSURI×MATERIAL)." These designs show how new technology can be used to draw new value out of the inherent appeal of materials.
GoTouch™ THE ZEN™
GoTouch™ Compounds are innovative materials that see distinctive unused resources from various locations blended with plastics. These unused resources come not just from regions but from companies and industries too.
For this particular product, MOLp™ has developed a proprietary technology wherein wood flour from the furniture manufacturing process and discarded clothing from the apparel industry are blended with polypropylene and injection molded to create a material with a unique vintage feel in a single process. THE ZEN™ is a shell chair and ottoman that represent the charm of this technology.
By mixing unused resources into plastics, those resources are utilized as a material-recyclable biofiller, which can then be molded to create products that people can love. The aim is that this not only enables the fixation of CO2 attributed to unused resources but also makes for long-life products.
KODAMA wind chimes TAMANE
Despite being a plastic, APEL™ – a transparent material used in the likes of smartphone lenses – resembles metal or glass in its ability to produce a clear sound when struck. This work fuses Mitsui Chemicals’ acoustic technology and 3D printing technology to work backward from a desired timbre’s frequency and calculate the ideal shape for a given wind chime, which is then output by a 3D printer. With their highly transparent appearance and the tiny variations of form that are characteristic of 3D printing, these are one-of-a-kind items with a beautiful appearance akin to Edo Furin wind chimes, all created with modern technology.
OLIOK
Having a cold glass of wine outside on a sunny day can be bliss, but wine coolers are too bulky to comfortably carry around. With that issue in mind, MOLp™ used the properties of HUMOFIT™, which softens at around human body temperature and hardens when it gets colder, to create a new wine cooler design that can be stored as a simple sheet, then – leveraging the basics of origami – turned into a 3D shape to which ice can be added. Thanks to the washi paper, a traditional Japanese craft, pasted to the material’s surface, the product provides a unique feel and sense of elegance. The see-through look of the washi paper can help further enhance the outdoor atmosphere.
STABiO™ SLOW VASE TECH
GREEN WISE Co., Ltd. is a company advocating for the concept of "slow green," where natural, familiar greenery is incorporated into lifestyles and interior design.
In 2019, TAMARU Yuichi, the company’s representative at the time, came up with "Kukido", the Way of the Stem, as a design approach that draws attention not just to the flower but also the stem. And in order to express this concept, STABiO™, a plant-derived bioplastic, was used to achieve the idea of arranging stems in a transparent flower base that makes it look as if water is simply floating, with the stems living independently.
The flower vase created for MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2019 has still not discolored or deteriorated, six years later, and continues to make flowers and stems alike look beautiful. The vase is set to make its triumphant return to MILAN DESIGN WEEK after six years.
References:
■ About MagnaRecta, Inc.
MagnaRecta is a Japanese company specializing in design, advanced systems development, robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence. It offers a comprehensive range of services, including product design, prototyping, software and hardware development, electronics, mechatronics, and AI agents. The company is committed to transforming customer ideas into reality, leveraging expertise across multiple industries.
Web : https://magnarecta.com/
■ About the brand "130"
130 (OneThirty), the design brand of MagnaRecta, focuses on innovative three-dimensional modeling technologies that surpass traditional 3D printing techniques. This approach enables the creation of complex, lightweight forms, bringing 3D objects used in gaming and film into real-world scale. 130 (OneThirty) products are designed to be durable, lightweight, and fully recyclable, allowing for complete repair or deconstruction to create new objects—a fully sustainable cycle of creation and reuse with minimal environmental impact.
Web : https://www.130onethirty.com/
Instagram : ＠130_magnarecta
