Table of Contents
Material Production
The problems produced by conventional petroleum-based plastics and the associated high consumption of energy and resources are becoming more and more apparent. Businesses and industries have long been looking for alternative materials for more Material production. The Design Council presents various projects in which sustainable design objects are created from biological raw materials.
On the occasion of the Triennale 2019 in Milan, Broken Nature – Design takes on Human Survival the biologist and curator Stefano Marcus proclaims the “nation of plants.” Plants make up 85 percent of living nature, while the animal kingdom – including humans – makes up just 0.03 percent. Flora existed long before us – and will probably outlive us for a long time. According to Marcus, instead of subjugating the world, we humans should begin to learn from plants and appreciate their often astonishing inventiveness. In view of the only globally solvable climate problem, the pavilion of the “Nation of Plants” at the same time an enigmatic instrument for questioning one’s own thought structures, which are anchored in nations and clearly defined borders. But it does not have its lobby.
Growing naturally: New scenarios for production and the economy
We have to accept the abilities of the ‘other,’ the non-human, and learn to convert them into usable technologies,” said Maurizio Mentality, founder and creative director, Officine Corpuscle, in an interview with the Design Council. In projects such as Mycelium Design, Fungal Future, or De Alarm Natura, Mentality experiments with new types of organic materials and processes. With his newly founded design company Mogo, he shows how this works. Since mid-2019, it has been producing a collection of floor tiles consisting of a mycelial composite core with a 90 to 95 percent bio-based resin coating.
Biodegradable Bioplastics with the Material Properties of Plastic
Ideas like these urgently needed in a world where 300 million tons of new plastics produced every year. That’s why cup! S – crafting plastics! Studio. The young product designers Vasa Kutuzov and Miroslav Karl founded the company in 2016 in Berlin and Bratislava. With their ideas, they bring a breath of fresh air into the production facilities, above all with the innovative material Nauman, a bioplastic that consists of 100 percent renewable raw materials and is biodegradable – but has the properties of plastic. There are hardly any limits to the imagination when it comes to design. CPU! Dared to get started with a sunglasses collection, and they collaborate with various companies and designers.
Double the Ecological Balance: Material for Products
Studio Klarenbeek & Drops – consisting of Eric Klarenbeek and Maatjes Drops – with Atelier Lama rely on another plant material in their Algae Lab project: “Algae produce most of the oxygen we breathe by binding carbon dioxide and converting it into biomass since they absorb carbon (C) and produce O2 as a waste product: clean air.” In contradiction to global warming and the associated ocean acidification, algae help bind CO2 from the atmosphere. And what would be more sensible than converting the biomass created as a by-product into a biopolymer and using it as a starting material for design products? In their laboratory in Arles, France. The designers create a translucent material from the raw material that is abundantly available in the region’s waters.
which can used in various ways: from pottery, vessels, and vases to music records.
Furniture Veneer Made From Seaweed
The designer and professor at the algae, which she processes so that they function as a material for furniture design. The seaweed veneer replaces the layer of wood that generally forms the surface of the mask. Your luminarium bench consists of 21 layers of seaweed veneer. The shape of the judiciary inspired by the movement of the kelp (tang) in the sea. In addition to this plant material. The designer also uses other unconventional resources for her experiments, for example, maggots or sheep stomachs.
With all progress: So far, the use of bioplastics is still very manageable. Only one percent of all products worldwide made with it. If – as the projects mentioned above – previously experimental biological materials reach market maturity and allow larger quantities at low cost. They could soon find their way into the industry on a large scale.