Design Center champions bamboo at Manila FAME

by Penny Angeles-Tan | Oct 18, 2018 | Advocacy, Events

On the 68^th edition of Manila FAME, the country’s premier design and lifestyle event, the Design Center of the Philippines will showcase the potential uses of bamboo through the creation of a design-forward home, lifestyle, and adventure products in its exhibits, Bamboo 360^o and Bamboo Extreme 2.0.

Rhea Matute, Executive Director of Design Center of the Philippines

“We grew up with bamboo, so we can use our natural design language of bamboo and bring it to the next level, in terms of bringing innovation and using it as a form of expression of our creativity and our vision of the future,” Design Center Executive Director Rhea Matute remarked during the exclusive media preview of Manila FAME exhibits at LRI Design Plaza.

“For this year’s installment of Bamboo Extreme, which is Bamboo Extreme 2.0, these are iterations of new concepts in mobility using bamboo as a material. We are proud to feature this in our bamboo setting in Manila FAME, together with the prototypes for Bamboo 360^o,” Matute added.

Previewed at the LRI, the bamboo setting takes its inspiration from the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. The bamboo canopy housed two of the bamboo-made products to be featured in Manila FAME, Bambino by Bambike Revolutions and Eco-Padyak by Milo Naval.

The former is a scoot bike that was recently awarded the Good Design Award, Japan’s most prestigious and recognizable design award, and the latter is inspired by the definitively Filipino tricycle and pedicab, which won the Editor’s Choice by Locale Magazine. A new version of the Green Falcon by Banatti, an electric motorcycle with a marine-lacquered bamboo bodywork, will also be featured in the Design Center’s exhibit at Manila FAME.

“Our partnership with the mining sector is to help in the propagation of bamboo and using bamboo as a material on a horizontal application – it’s really finding more industries in which bamboo can be used. The partnership with the mining communities aims to close the supply-chain gap,” Matute said of Design Center’s Manila FAME exhibit co-presenter Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) and event partner Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) in their efforts to transform post-mining communities.

Matute added that the agency’s partnership with the mining sector aims to instill a commitment to the circular economy, particularly in the way we create and consume products.

The Executive Director also said that the Design Center is looking forward to realizing the vision of the mining sector to develop agro-industrial estates in the communities they are involved in.

Nora K. Terrado, DTI Undersecretary for the Trade and Promotions

“What we are trying to achieve this time is to bring Manila FAME to the world in a whole different realm – transforming the way we execute things in a different content. We are evolving, and we are excited about that,” Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary for the Trade and Promotions Group Nora K. Terrado explained.

“Manila FAME is not intended to be just a few days of physical exhibitions, but it should be something that would allow us to have a touchpoint, to make it virtual. The touchpoint would be an opportunity for our MSMEs to reach out to a greater market,” she added.

Organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), Manila FAME, running from October 19-21 at the World Trade Center, faces digitalization head-strong while also promoting the signature craftsmanship of Filipino designers and the boundless creativity of the country.

“We will fortify the collaboration between our partner agencies, the Design Center of the Philippines and the Philippine Nickel Industry Association, as they reinforce the evolution of bamboo as a raw material of functional yet remarkably designed pieces,” CITEM Executive Director Pauline Suaco-Juan noted.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Matute said that the Design Center, a sister agency of CITEM, will always help in showing the world the true potential of what Philippine creativity and design has to offer.

Also present during the exclusive media preview were National Bamboo Industry Cluster Coordinator and DTI-Region III Director Judith Angeles, PNIA Chairman and President of Marcventures Holdings, Inc. Isidro Alcantara, Jr., PNIA Chairman Emeritus and Chairman of the PNIA Committee on Sustainability Clarence Pimentel, Jr., PNIA Executive Director Charmaine Olea-Capili, and COMP Executive Director Ronald Recidoro.