Post by Isaac Salm, Managing Director MIO Culture
We are in a relationship with Earth.
Not a healthy one. Not reciprocal —at least not for the better part of the last three hundred years.
It’s a relationship marked by overconsumption, extraction, and disregard—a pattern of taking more than we give. If this were any other relationship, we might call it abusive. And like any broken relationship, repair begins with recognition.
At MIO, this recognition is at the root of how we design. Because sustainability isn’t about “saving” the planet—the planet will go on. It’s about showing up better in the relationship. It’s about making things differently, using differently, thinking differently. It’s about remembering that every object, every choice, is part of a larger system of connection between people, places, materials, and the Earth itself.
This is the lens through which we see design—not as product, but as relationship.
Seeing the World with New Eyes
Our work has always begun by looking again. At materials, at processes, at the systems we’ve inherited. And asking: What if this could be different?
That’s why we’ve chosen to work with materials like recycled plastic bottles (rPET)—not because it’s trendy, but because it’s smart. These materials, optimized for performance in industries like automotive, offer durability and acoustic benefits that we can redirect into new uses. It’s one small way of participating in a better relationship with what already exists.
The same applies to our partnership with a historic hat factory, where traditional wool felt molding methods became the starting point for something unexpected: soft, sculptural bowls. Not hats, but vessels—new life from familiar hands.
Designing this way isn’t about novelty. It’s about attention. It’s about seeing the whole story—the raw material, the maker, the end user—and respecting the role each plays.
Flexibility Is Care
Healthy relationships adapt. They listen. They shift when needs change. This belief is why we embrace modularity—not as a product feature, but as a philosophy of care.
Our modular systems, like Nomad, aren’t static objects. They’re tools for participation. Configurable. Reconfigurable. Designed for change. Because the spaces we inhabit, the ways we work and live, are always evolving—and the things we bring into those spaces should evolve with us.
Designing for flexibility is designing with empathy.
The Responsibility of Endings
It’s easy to fall in love with the beginning of things—the spark of a new idea, the beauty of a finished product. But at MIO, we believe real responsibility shows up at the end.
That’s why we focus on designing for disassembly. Why we choose mono-material construction whenever possible—so that when a product reaches the end of its use, its materials can easily be separated and returned to meaningful cycles. We align materials with processes and lifecycles that already exist, instead of inventing waste streams that can’t be managed.
Because endings, too, are part of the relationship.
Play as a Form of Connection
Relationships aren’t only about responsibility—they’re also about joy, discovery, and shared experience. Play is one of the most human ways we connect, communicate, and learn.
This is why we designed the Fly Seesaw—not just as an object, but as an invitation. To move. To balance. To play. To meet one another in motion. Even in the most formal spaces, play has the power to soften edges, dissolve hierarchy, and remind us of our shared humanity.
At its best, design does the same.
Participation Over Prescription
Our goal has never been to tell you how to live. It’s to invite you into participation—to give you tools that respond, adapt, and ask questions.
Design, for us, is not about dictating form. It’s about holding space for relationships:
Between people and planet.
Between product and place.
Between the past, the present, and the future we imagine together.
Because the future we want isn’t made of things.
It’s made of connections.
