The redesigners behind NIAGA are looking to outsmart complex combinations of toxic, non-recyclable elements in everyday items. They were inspired by the Turritopsis dohrnii, a species of jellyfish that repeatedly regenerates itself and is thought to be virtually immortal. The Dutch group’s objective is to rethink everyday items along the same lines, ideally producing them from a basic set of pure materials that can be "reborn" time after time once the product they were used to make reaches the end of its useful life. The start-up's philosophy also includes making products healthier and completely recyclable without compromising on performance - even if this entails a radical change in the manufacturing and business model.

NIAGA is making its debut at DOMOTEX 2020 because the first redesigned product is a carpet. Conventional carpets are made up of complex material combinations that are, to all intents and purposes, glued together for eternity, which means they are currently one of the main contributors to landfill waste. NIAGA has now found ways of meeting all performance requirements applying to a carpet with one single material that is designed to enable easy and, above all, complete recycling at the end of its service life so that it can be "resurrected" as a carpet without using any new resources.