Milano Design Week 2025: What Trends Does It Set?

Eliska Novák Knotková & her team designers-visionaries

The Balance is Motion design studio team shares a passion for experimentation and pushing boundaries, whether in materials, morphology or overall concept.

In high-quality design, we almost always see sustainable principles, says the Balance is Motion team

"Whether we are designing a table or a diffuser is secondary; what matters most to us is collaborating with clients who share our vision and trust," says Eliška Novák Knotková, founder of the Balance is Motion studio.

Diminishing Support? Designers Respond to Changes in CzechTrade Directory Registration Conditions. Why Did It Happen and What Does It Mean?

Since the dissolution of the Design Centre of the Czech Republic in 2007, the field of design has not been comprehensively and systematically supported at the state level. After the institution was abolished, part of its agenda was transferred to CzechTrade, an agency operated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which—similarly to the Design Centre—manages a database of Czech designers. However, in September last year, the agency updated the conditions for registration in the directory.

Plastics are good. However, we make mistakes in handling them

Single-use plastics are harmful, but plastic itself can be an eco-friendly material. It all depends on how we use it. Designers should make it as easy as possible for consumers, as was stated at this year’s Designblok.

Upcycling in the Czech Republic: a pen made from toothbrushes or a bag made from seat belts

The mycelium packaging has become a functional part of a unique memento

Design That Grows: Grow Kit for Škoda Auto designed by Balance is Motion

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Sustainability suits them

On my soul! Production "planet friendly" furnishing objects is for designers and companies an increasingly interesting sphere for designers and companies, not only thanks to the seriousness of the topic, which resonates throughout society, but also because of the new avenues for creativity and experimental approaches that are opening up.

7 new icons

Balance is Motion, a studio specializing in sustainable design, presented its designs for the Czech brand Ekustik, which produces acoustic interior elements for recording studios or home listening rooms.

Towards Youth

This year, the design is once again heading to Prague Castle, but also to other places. The theme of the 26th edition of Designblok, the largest Central European design and fashion show, was youth. Starting creators, companies with centuries of tradition and students presented ideas and cutting-edge craftsmanship. They shaped glass, sandstone, rice husks or dug up from the D subway.

Prague’s Designblok 24: what’s on at design’s most playful festival

Annual inventory of novelties. Looking back at Designblok 2024, who scored with the editors?

This year's Designblok with the theme Youth brings new locations, collaborations and materials

Designblok 2024. What to see and maybe even buy for your apartment?

Designblok 2024

Design and responsibility

On the day Eliška Knotková gave her notice at work, she found out she was pregnant. "I thought that now might be the right time to try to start my own idea. There's no point in looking for a job and I don't have much to lose," she recalls of the beginning of 2021, when her design studio Balance is Motion was born.

A rocking horse of chairs and a coliseum of sinks? The biggest design show in the Czech Republic attracts with playfulness

Balance is Motion: this creative studio's Foamy furniture collection for Yate features recycled foam (surplus from other products) plus a composite of rice husk, salt and mineral oil. And for the Ekustik brand, the studio designed the Tectonia acoustic furniture.

Furniture made from rice and glass from yoghurt trays. What not to miss at this year's Designblok?

Until 6 October, the Museum of Prague, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and the Prague Castle Riding Hall are hosting the annual Designblok fair. What designers or manufacturers should not be overlooked? We've scoured all the locations and created a handy guide to this year's most interesting installations.

Upcycled PET bottles to reduce noise. Tasteful acoustic furniture enters the market.

The new Tectonia acoustic furniture collection from Balance is Motion will be appreciated by lovers of quality music and interior design. It combines acoustic properties with refined design and was created for the Czech brand Ekustik, which is sought after abroad for its quality craftsmanship of acoustic elements. The collection will be launched for the first time at Designblok in October, where Balance is Motion earned a nomination for the Sustainable Design Award with their Ruderal project last year.

The sofa from foam was supposed to stay a prototype. Now, a whole furniture collection, also made from rice, comes to the market

Rice and foam are the two basic raw materials that make up the new furniture collection, which will be on display for the first time at Designblok. Two Czech companies are behind it.

Excess

Hearing, seeing, feeling

Rice and recycled foam

First and foremost: balance

Modular construction

Setting noise aside, acoustic furniture with a sense of style takes center stage

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Furniture from rice and recycled foam enters the market

Production of the Foamy furniture collection, whose concept won the Ro Plastic Prize in the 2022 competition organised by Rossana Orlandi, has begun. Foamy, which has not yet been available for purchase, will soon be on the market. Compared to the original winning design by Balance is Motion, the collection will expand with new products and will be enhanced by an altered material composition. The original panels made of recycled plastic will be replaced by Resysta, a rice composite material that will make the entire product even more sustainable and more durable.

Czech furniture to stir German debate on integration of war refugees

Furniture from rice and recycled foam enters the market

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Czech design is heading abroad: mobile furniture rocks the public debate in Germany

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No material is fully sustainable, I like to believe in science, says designer Marie Nina Václavková

Wherever she steps (for example in her own shoe design), she thrives. This is the work of the talented Czech designer Maria Nina Václavková, who currently designs shoes for the Italian brand Gia Borghini and, together with her team, is behind the creation of the eco-design studio Balance is Motion.

Construction waste as a source of raw production materials

Demolitions, brownfields, new constructions and reconstructions produce a significant amount of waste, which accumulates into a huge mass representing an environmental burden for the planet and significant financial costs of disposal for developers.

No new product is fully sustainable, says founder of Balance Is Motion

The word sustainability has become ubiquitous in recent years, with company bosses racing to see how many times they can repeat it in a single conversation. Yet few of them are basing their production on real numbers and evidence that would confirm the sustainability of their creations. The Czech company Balance Is Motion is trying to do the opposite.

A priest, a football player, a singer or a chef changing the world together: the Global Goals Summit is one week away

CZECH AWARDS EDIDA 2024 NOMINATIONS

Concrete building blocks from demolition waste as cool furniture for the circular economy

In a world where we are acutely aware of our environmental impact, but where the human desire for new things continues unabated, eco-design offers itself as a solution that combines aesthetics with functionality and sustainability. The award-winning Ruderal modular project from Balance is Motion is a case in point.

Designblok in eco-mode / Balance is Motion's new modular system inspired by lichens

After its New York premiere at Wanted Design, the award-winning studio will present its versatile Ruderal modular system at the upcoming Designblok. The unique approach to creating different types of furnishings was inspired by lichens.

Eco-design studio Balance is Motion presents its innovative modular system Ruderal

Balance is Motion, a Czech eco-design studio, presents its innovative modular system Ruderal at Designblok 2023, showing that aesthetics and sustainability can go hand in hand

Czech studio Balance is Motion in New York

The award-winning design studio will represent the Czech Republic with its new product at the Eco Solidarity exhibition.

Make your own

The modular system Ruderal is the revolutionary furniture concept of the future.

A Journey into Lina Bo Bardi's Creativity - an exhibit at Konsepti Stage

Alongside the exhibition, an installation by the design studio Balance is Motion will be on display in the courtyard of Holport, where Konsepti is based.

[word-rap] balance is motion

The concept of Balance is Motion is as extraordinary as you would expect from a studio specializing in eco-design. "We focus on high-quality B2B product design and the design of events and installations," says the team.

Circular Economy at the Czech National Exposition: when waste is the beginning of the story

The creative concept for the circular economy installation was designed by Balance is Motion, an eco-design studio that helps companies link their sustainability strategies with product development.

Digi aesthetics, colour-blocking and AI-designed chairs. What trends are dominating interiors?

Ecodesign - how to balance creative and analytical approaches

Common sense is not enough, data is needed, says sustainable materials expert

Shoe soles made from overgrown cyanobacteria, building insulation made from fungal mycelium or fabric dyed with bacteria. Such substances are not science fiction, but the hot of the present.

Manufacturers often look for shortcuts. But eco-design have to be worked off

Companies are increasingly interested in producing organically. But they don't always understand that the most attractive solution may not be the best.

Finding the balance and the situation in our country

Eco-design will be the standard in a few years.

In a few years, ecodesign will be the standard, but common sense will not be enough, says Eliška Knotková.

Greenhack won the app for longer furniture life

Public seats from waste

An eco-design studio called Balance is Motion from the Czech Republic creates a prototype for public seating using waste foam material called Polimix.

Future-proof materials: how are they made and what can they do?

Balance is Motion: What's up with the pickles?

We talked to the winners of the Veolia Sustainable Design Award about why it's good to buy cucumbers in plastic, about ecological design and about why "Once you stop moving you fall".

Polyester can sometimes be greener than organic cotton, says ecodesign studio founder

When choosing materials, it is important to consider the environmental impact across the entire product life cycle, says Eliška Knotková, founder of ecodesign studio Balance is Motion

It will find out if you are really eco. The award-winning Balance is Motion project offers brands valuable analysis of their production processes

The Balance is Motion project reveals the shortcomings and offers solutions. And now they have impressed the jury of the Ro Plastic Price competition in Milan last week with their vision.