Materials that blur the boundaries between nature and synthetics
Chris Lefteri takes a look into the future and at research that is working towards creating materials that blur the boundaries between nature and synthetics. Lefteri, a designer and author, has helped some of the world’s largest consumer brands formulate new strategies for effective materials integration during the design process
Imagine a world where your clothing can be woven and shaped by the root system of a plant, where your shoes morph and adapt to better support your feet to suit the type of surface you're walking on, and where silk is harvested and used to produce plastic films capable of storing data.
Blurring the line between biology and synthetics, the design process has evolved beyond the development of forms and structures, resulting in the dissecting and manipulation of nature through the cross breeding of grown materials with artificial substances. These designers or 'new materiologists' are forging a unique new path for design innovation through solutions that will transform and shape the future.
Presenting as part of the Inspired by Nature exhibition at the Roca Gallery London this spring, Marcos Cruz explained his approach: 'Architecture is starting to absorb, integrate and host nature in its own skin. Rather than biomimicry it should be seen as a joint venture between architecture and nature.' This statement captures this evolution of the approach: rather than merely being inspired by nature, design is redefining the use of nature. In this trend of designers and architects developing new materials, there are concerns over the environment as one of the drivers for innovation.
Although silk was first cultivated in the Far East more than 5,000 years ago, Professor Fionrenzo Omenetto (Tufts University, Massachusetts), in his now-famous TED talk, is researching how it could emerge as a renewable material with potential way beyond the garment industry. One area is using the optical properties of silk (the reason it shimmers) to generate film capable of storing information. Worm silk is not the only form currently under the microscope of scientists. Spider silk - recently found to be a super heat conductor - and bee silk are also emerging as new materials. Apart from the obvious uses of woven silk and its origins in exotic textiles, Omenetto proposes that silk can be used for implanting into the body to replace veins and arteries, implantable fibre optics, storage for data through its optical properties, and for compostable products and sustainable plastics.
With a background in materials science and a subsequent MA from the Royal College of Art, designer and materials architect Sarat Babu's work sits firmly between the bounds of today and tomorrow. Where as many designers are looking at the material composition itself to drive innovation Babu takes a slightly different approach by exploring the relationship between geometry and production.
His research explores what happens if the form of the product is varied by changing the way a single material can be produced in multiple grades and formed with internal structure that, when stretched or pulled, changes the performance of the external form and function. He also is exploring a potential new architecture that encompasses a scalar hierarchy of matter, enabling design to take place concurrently at scales ranging from the micrometre to the metre. This research has resulted in him currently working closely with surgeons at University College London to develop new polymers and composites for knee replacements that mimic the inherent properties and characteristics of existing human cartilage.
Both optimistic and cautionary, the work of designer, researcher and curator Carole Collet explores concepts that either embrace or reject the new bio-tech revolution. Through her work in setting up the textiles futures MA course and the Textile Futures Research Centre at Central Saint Martins, and her many research projects she has been instrumental in redefining textiles. One of her research projects focuses on reprogramming plants to create a hybrid strawberry plant that produces fruit and lace at the same time.
As science evolves rapidly past the realms of idealism, what becomes of design and manufacture when we can program the living? Collet ponders that if today's tools for designers are computer programs such as Photoshop, then in the future this toolbox will need to incorporate a completely different set of skills that will allow them to program on a new level of biological engineering.
Similarly, textiles designer Shamees Aden focuses on emerging living technologies for the future world with her study into the remarkable new discovery of protocells. To understand the idea, she demonstrates what protocells look like under a microscope. At this scale these living cells appear to be randomly floating but then join up to create larger masses. This provides a vision of a future world where structures, shapes and even running shoes are grown and formed into new products.
Collaborating with scientists, Aden conceived the futuristic Amoeba, a living shoe that adapts to your feet and the surfaces you walk on to provide greater cushioning and support where needed most. This glimpse into a future world does not just draw breath for the vision it presents us with in terms of wow factor; it also brings to mind a vision of the future where our ability to control living cells is frightening.
