deus ex machina

MDF is cheap and easy to work with, but the material is seen as the gnarliest, least sustainable, ugliest material in interior design. Due to its dusty features MDF seems to be far away from its wooden ancestor: the tree. Because of this, the material has a bad reputation. Futurist designer Arno Hoogland disagrees. He wants to show the divine qualities of this material in his first ever solo-exhibition ‘Deus ex Machina’, located in the Isola District during Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy. Deus ex machina Arno came across a piece of software that let him dance with his CNC milling machine. Arno could specify the thickness and shape of the line, and the machine would figure out for itself how deep he would sink the milling head into the material. This way it became a dialogue with the machine, so that no one knew in advance what the outcome would look like. For his new series, Arno refers to the expression Deus Ex Machina. Like a divine intervention, he brings the machine and the material to life. For the presentation of this new series, the machine gets a place in the spotlights in Milan. It doesn't feel right if Arno gets all the fame, while the machine stays behind in the Netherlands. Temple samples As a designer, Arno is strongly inspired by futurism. He tries to shape future worlds, which can differ from each other. In Milan, all these worlds come together in a 'temple of the future', made on site in building blocks by the milling machine. Next to the temple’s building blocks, Arno shows a range of furniture. *Using Bio-based MDF to help the planet