After my last blog post which examined the ‘CityTree’ sculpture in Glasgow’s city centre; I was fairly pessimistic about humanity’s impact on the world. I discussed this existing product that uses a living dense moss to clean our city’s air which helped inspire me to be more concerned about what I am breathing. I want to continue to investigate where “living technology” is going next and what are likely examples of it that could become everyday products for us in the not too distant future? One of the many answers is clothing and textiles. New science is being applied everyday in exciting ways to create a new industry: bio-clothing.
The first the product I want to talk about is one I discovered at the London Design Festival. On its final day at a small stall in the South Kensington Underground pedestrian tunnel I happened upon a green jumper. I then discovered it was in fact green because it was a regular cotton jumper with intertwined strands of algae. Algae is a living and breathing organism made up of photosynthetic cells- they breath in carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen using the power of absorbed sunlight. This encourages the wearer to understand their clothes in a totally new context; they must water, feed and be gentle to them and in return, the clothes will actively improve the air quality for you and everyone. This alignment of science and fashion has inspired other designers such as Roya Aghighi who was shortlisted at the 2019 Dezeen Awards for her piece titled: Biogarmentry. She has used patches of algae spun within nano polymers to create patterned textiles and garments. Living fashion could help to curve our insatiable appetite for consuming clothing by encouraging us to reassess the value and use we put on the clothes we own.
The designer Piero D’Angelo has taken bio-clothing in a completely different direction; instead adding organisms to textiles for photosynthesis, he is growing the clothes from living organisms. He is currently in residence at Open Cell; a London workspace for biotech prototyping in a low cost environment to support start-ups. Physarum Polycephalum is a slime usual found on the underside of rotten logs and damp leaves but due to some of its unique qualities Piero is growing it into patterned textiles- I know, stay with me. The slime can be controlled to grow into a desired pattern as it is very sensitive to certain chemical and aromatic compounds. It is alive but has no central nervous system so it efficiently decides to grow rapidly into areas of food and avoids areas of repellent. It’s simple decision making has potential for uses within robotics and computing but for the time being it is a growing material within the fashion industry.
Allowing nature to take its course in a controlled environment and grow into products instead of making them is an ingenious approach ready to revolutionise modern manufacturing. Mycoworks has taken that concept and run with it. Stanford University lecturer Philip Ross believes, and he’s not alone, that the mushroom protein mycelium is the answer to sustainable production so much so that he founded the company Mycoworks which researches and develops mycelium into products. Other companies like Bolt Threads and Ecovative Design are other success stories singing its praise and turning a profit but Philip Ross has dedicated his life to researching these unique organisms. Mushrooms are the ultimate recycler and can grow from virtually any agricultural waste. From rice bran to sawdust in the right humidity and temperature environments Philip Ross and his researchers have grown mycelia-bricks which are pound for pound stronger than concrete, self-extinguishing and fire resistant, vibration absorbent and they can float. They can be grown into any shape and he has proved it with his artistic “mycotecture” chair and side table. What started out as a sculptural material for art pieces now has serious commercial and environmental potential. The bricks are grown and kilned to kill the mushrooms and leave a useable brick so that houses don’t start sprouting. Mycoworks have also produced a mushroom leather which matches synthetic leathers for strength and cow leather’s breathability but can allow designers to grow features like seams and patterns into the material. The equivalent sized sheet that takes a traditional leather two years to grow and countless resources can be grown in two weeks from mycelium in farm waste.
It seems like a no brainer for this to become a mainstream resource in the near future. However, it’s the idea of growing products that really excites me. It gives the consumer a fresh interpretation of how they interact with materials and what is expected from them. This builds towards an attitude of consumers being conscious to ask how materials are made and what will happen to them at the end of their life. It is also presenting designers from all disciplines new opportunities with endless possibilities and is asking them instead of how can this be made, can it be grown? To me, that shows ingenuity and exemplifies great design.
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