As our annual Trends issue reveals, 2018 will see circular economies become the new norm. Makers and manufacturers alike have long taken sustainable design seriously, but the year ahead promises to advance the movement even further with everything from algae-based energy systems (the brainchild of London architects EcoLogicStudio) to durable walls and furniture fabricated using reconstituted fabric offcuts, a reality being achieved by Danish company Really in partnership with Kvadrat.

Maximize to minimize. That is how we’re describing the strengthening movement to go green that is permeating all design channels. Now on newsstands, Azure’s trends report is devoted to the heroes who are building their business around circular economies – those that embrace everything from cradle to cradle and biomimicry to degenerative design and the blue economy. Where London’s Studio Swine has built its practice on finding ecological material alternatives like human hair and Ebonite, Kengo Kuma in Japan continues to build using one of the industry’s oldest materials, wood. From zero waste production to sustainable material explorations, our 2018 trends watch shows a future where everything will be recycled and reused.

We also debate what is possibly architecture’s greatest failure, gender inequality faced by women who are still struggling to be paid and represented like their male counterparts. Plus, an amphitheatre in Quebec reanimates its riverside site; mending a bitter past in remote region of Chile with a hillside observatory that brings together the indigenous and settler populations, and more.

The October 2017 issue of Azure is now available on newsstands and online. Get yours now: for single copies go to shop.azuremagazine.com; to subscribe, go to azuremagazine.com/getazure.