Designers have an integral role in the shift toward biofabrication. What are the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead?
Think of fungi, microalgae, salt or bacteria. Who would have thought, up until recently, that we could derive building materials from them – materials supporting circular solutions in interior design without comprising constructive requirements, function or aesthetics? Yet we can, as recent applications and industry contracts are proving. And while some of today’s biofabricated materials are still more costly compared to conventional fossil fuel-based materials, the effective costs are expected to fall with further scaling of operations and rising production volumes, and prices will lower accordingly, making these materials more widely available.
What is remarkable about the current advance in biofabrication is that it has largely been design-led. Knowing how to transform naturally grown matter or agricultural by-products into fully functional materials with stable properties is one thing. What is also required is a commitment to link R&D and proprietary technology together with the design process, with the final product and client in mind. The transition to biofabricated materials thus also hinges on designers who mediate between the demands of production, industry and the market, bringing their user-centred approach to material innovation. They can turn circular materials into desirable commodities and, with their imagination and capacity for storytelling, contribute to informing a new cultural understanding with the public and help with promoting the adoption of biofabricated material solutions.
Cover and above: A biobased materials exhibition held in a house-shaped structure, the The Exploded Beyond View Building was originally show at Dutch Design Week 2021 and is now displayed at Almere's Expo Floriade. Mogu's mycelium tiles feature in the show.
While designers lead the transition to biofabrication in substantial ways, they watch its current development closely and analyse the challenges ahead. Henna Burney of Luma Atelier, for instance, has observed an inflationary use of the term biobased, not unlike in the food industries. She warns that the category may be diluted even prior to its actual recognition with a wider audience: ‘Not everything is biobased which claims to be. We need certifications that properly distinguish between what qualifies as biobased material and what not, looking at the material itself and its properties as much as its production process and end of life.’
Maurizio Montalti from Mogu takes this point further. He nods to the increasing requests for life-cycle assessments (LCAs) in the building industry, and the difficulty of sourcing complex data for a complete LCA. Montalti cautions that ‘we mustn’t forget that we live in a world where most of the materials we use are of extractive nature.’ This also goes for organic residues that serve as input for many biofabricated materials: ‘Very often it is not questioned where such feedstocks come from. They primarily come from agro-industrial activities, the majority of which are still unfortunately being globally performed through monoculturing, hence contributing to loss of biodiversity and depletion of finite resources.’ And he concludes: ‘While the ways in which we valourize these biomasses at Mogu are rather virtuous, as is the case for other companies too, we shouldn’t forget about the fundamental need of changing the agro-industrial productive system literally from its roots, by encouraging a shift to inclusive cultivation practices that promote diversity (e.g. agro-forestry), as this would ideally allow for a radical butterfly effect benefitting the whole ecosystem.’
Atelier Luma's algae tiles are cultivated in the sea. They are fast-growing and absorb CO2 in the process.
Accordingly, going biobased is less a destination than a point of departure from where to start implementing more ecologically beneficial production processes. The Luma algae tiles illustrate what this may mean. ‘The microalgae that we used for the tiles can be produced in big quantities with a positive impact for the environment,’ says Anne-Claire Hostequin of Luma’s Algae Platform. They are cultivated in the sea using no agricultural surfaces, fast-growing while absorbing CO2 in the process. ‘What is more, the microalgae used for the tiles were produced within the context of a phytoremediation project to clean the industrial fumes in the contaminated port zone at Fos-sur-Mer in the Rhône river delta.’
As biofabricated materials continue to be developed, it is worthwhile to watch the designers who are behind some of the most interesting innovations in the field. The work of Biomason, Mogu, Luma Atelier and the like are currently featured in the Exploded View Beyond Building, a life-size case study house on show at the Expo Floriade in Almere, the Netherlands, until 9 October 2022.
