Materials matter, yet why design all the chairs?

Material Matters 2023 was a trade + consumer fair as part of the London Design Festival, occupying all five floors of the OXO Tower Wharf’s Bargehouse on the river’s southbank.

Building from a simple podcast led by Grant Gibson, Material Matters is now an international platform and was situated here to spotlight “leaders across design working to develop new and innovative ways of using materials and illustrating why material intelligence is so important to our collective futures.” It also hosted a selection of panel discussions during the festival drawing together those leaders.

I travelled across the city to spend a couple of hours here at the end of my research day, anticipating a medley of cool inspirations — yet leaving feeling forlorn. This article takes you through the companies on show that I was drawn to for good or bad (so sit tight) with some accompanying thoughts.

Though it could be easy enough to take you through the showcase floor by floor, I like to compile my thoughts to make better sense and so have converged the designers/makers according to a few themes. Not all companies on show are highlighted in this article, simply because I couldn’t be bothered with them, yet those I both loved and hated are here with their pros and cons - though for the purpose of republishing on LinkedIn haven't included all the content.

It's also worth stipulating that I've chosen to direct you towards the more nature-based solutions than focussing on plastics and my "What?" category, because I don't want to give them space. However, you can find insight and musings via the link below. ↓

For the full article, please head to my website.

Here are my five key takeaways:

? Everything felt much of the same; not only in product form (are designers not fed up with chairs?!) but in the messaging. Communication was very much geared towards hitting particular keywords and I found myself shaking my head so often in confusion at the nonsense they were spouting. It wasn’t even that they were greenwashing per se, but these companies have a sense that they’re really making change because they’re hitting these benchmarks people want to hear.

? Truly natural materials were afterthoughts; by “truly natural” I mean the ones not produced in a lab aka “biomaterials”. Taking natural fibres to create an object, usually with traditional craftsmanship, has to be the most “sustainable” option, not only for circular solutions, but also in preserving heritage, wisdom and land. Often natural materials can have a positive impact, though these companies only focus on carbon.

? Carbon and virgin plastic reduction were front and centre; this is where companies are hitting those data points, by creating a product purely to establish them as a carbon reducer when in actual fact, they’re just creating more product for the sake of it, so not reducing anything at all. The same goes for not using virgin plastic but using recycled inputs in their place because they’re still introducing stuff from stuff that doesn’t need to be stuff.

? There was some educational bits; the part of the exhibition from Pearson Lloyd that highlighted different ways to approach systems design thinking was insightful for me, and would be helpful for those who’d never before considered monomateriality or disassembly.

? Student work was showcased; the space offered an opportunity for student work to be seen by industry folk, though some of it wasn’t recently ideated. I often forget that I once was a student coming up with ridiculous speculative ideas, and so try to consider their approaches without cringing. It’s unfortunate though that they curated the space to have really dark areas and the student bits always seemed to be exhibited in these areas.

In regards to the chair comment - ok, I didn't count all of the chairs on show but there was a myriad of them. From apparently carbon neutral office chairs, to regenerative leather, to crafted wooden, to moulded hemp straw, to compressed wool. I guess chairs are a straightfoward way to show the durability and comfort of a material, and are somewhat democratic, but I'm not going to go buy a posh chair even if I like it because I already have a chair. So why design more than people really need?

Crafted.

These take pride of place at the top because they take pride of place in my design heart. No nonsense, or at least not much. For the most part the products can be returned to the earth, they utilise ingredients and materials with respect to their origin, they don’t try to impose it as a ‘saviour solution’, and they showcase wisdom as the tech. Unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of these as part of the showcase.

Tanja Kirst — Planted.

Jacquard woven panels using hemp, “citrus” yarn (orange and lemon peel; probably Orange Fiber), pineapple yarn (likely processed in situ) and seaweed yarn (potentially SeaCell?) It’s not as pared back as I’d usually segment when referring to natural materials, because the citrus and seaweed yarns likely use solvents at some stage in their processing. But the pieces do highlight how traditional craft and "alternative” thinking can come together. It felt greenwashy though, that they placed such a crafted art in the entrance, then went on to display a load of plastic.

The Wicker Story.

Such a simple material and technique (simple not in knowledge but in inputs). Appreciated that this traditional interior aesthetic was still included, though they made it more sculpture focussed for the showcase with hanging curly features. The simple Lifafa Chair shown below I think highlights the beauty and functionality of wicker more.

Bill Amberg Studio.

The Knepp Collection is a series of furniture made using leather from cattle of the Knepp Estate and ash from felled dieback. The exhibit highlighted a panel from Isabella Tree explaining the symbiosis between roaming cattle and biodiversity, highlighting how leather can still have a place when part of a holistic system.

Nature-based.

Anett Papp — Naturing_Matter in Motion.

Panels of grass roots are allowed to grow naturally within a constrained shape, so creating the grid patterns. I expect these panels can be used as room dividers, acoustic panels? More artistic than functional, though can imagine they would set the tone in restaurants and hotels.

The True Green — Wood Alternatives Based On Hemp.

It seems to be part of a series of “wood alternatives based on annual plants” with hemp being one of those explored. Unprocessed hemp stalks are presumably compressed to create this wood material. It felt solid and looked posh; I’m intrigued into the processing and how it actually manages waste, which apparently comes from a partnership with the Institute of Natural Fibers and Herbaceous Plants in Poznań.

Botanica Textiles — Seasonal Natural Dyes.

A little selection of naturally-dyed textiles on cards next to a pouffe made from woven yarns. Unfortunately it was in a dark section of the room by a door so could be easily walked past and ignored. Would’ve liked to have seen more information on the colours too, to engage any visitors who did happen to look.

Henry Davison — Frond [Green Grads].

Having done my own creations using preserved seaweed, I’m always intrigued to see more. The premise to this one is that seaweed is a thick and durable material that is also renewable — unlike a tree, it will come again once cut. But as with all of these alternative materials, you need to consider the whole ecosystem and system. He made a chair and put some strips of kelp across, but it was the publication of his process that was most interesting.

Ceramica Ekta Ltd — The Clay Cycle.

Ekta Bagri developed this ceramic art project by utilising local unwanted soil, which in London is heavy in clay. The blocks are intended as sculptures, not functional, but perhaps if fired could be?

Malai [Rethink].

I was uncertain whether to include this material here or under ‘biomaterials’, because I do feel it less intrusive than some bio-based materials manufactured in a lab, but is a part nature/part lab-produced material. Coconut water from coconut processing is collected locally and is used to feed bacteria that will grow the cellulosic material. I like that they don’t tout it as a “leather alternative” and that they don’t introduce any synthetic inputs to change the properties.

Biomaterials.

I’m not a fan of the confusion that this term creates. Bio-based, biomaterial, biofabricated… all of our materials come from land (even if they originate from fossil fuels), but there has developed a hierarchy that somehow “biomaterials” are better, are sustainable, are innovative. I’ve used it as a header because most folk recognise it these days, but I’d prefer the term biofabricated, at least for the materials shown here. The first group control nature in some way through a sort of biophilic design — so I deem this as biofabricated — while the second group utilise nature’s ingredients along with other inputs to produce what you’d commonly term a biomaterial, such as bioplastic.

Silklab.

Couldn’t tell you what they were actually doing. It seemed that they were using silk proteins to produce printing inks that would then act as biosensors somehow for healthcare.

Georgie Gerrard — Grown Vessels [Green Grads].

Yet another use of mycelium, which fair enough is interesting especially for sculpture, but it doesn’t really have a point.

Fumo Panels — Mycelium Lab.

Another one. Their tagline is “we use technology provided by nature that allows us to be more sustainable”. They’re at least marketing their wall panels as sound-absorbing, and I’m sure they add a particular aesthetic to interiors, but can we actually be using mycelium for educational purposes not just as trying to control nature again? Sensorially these mycelium panels that many companies make are lovely.

Trixi Marx — Growable Graphics [Green Grads].

Using biophilic design to “grow” signs is a neat idea, but I don’t see it as being utterly practical. We see too often urban spaces where green walls have been forgotten about.

METIS Seagrass [Rethink].

Apparently seagrass washes up ashore of Mediterranean beaches. The resulting material is harder in surface that I would envision from flowing seagrass, and they’re marketing it as wall coverings and veneers to create a “wabi sabi” aesthetic. They say local councils take the seagrass to landfill, but why not just encourage them to compost it rather than creating another material that isn’t used for much function.

Cascara Stone.

This is a stone made from mussel, oyster and pipi shells otherwise discarded from the restaurant and aquaculture industry designed for “architectural surfaces and features”. They’re really new. It could be interesting, but I imagine there’s some resins needed to bind the shell.

Ecolurian — AlgalTile.

A nice looking material made from kelp that creates unique tiles. It’ll look good on walls for sure, but what is it actually doing?

Shell Homage.

Another tile out of shells, this time egg and nuts. Similar to stone/ceramic and “bonded with organic and biodegradable substances” to be able to be drilled and lasered. I’m intrigued how they collect enough shells. They state it could be good as a stone replacement for jewellery, and indeed it does have a fun pattern.

Studio newtab-22 — Sea Stone [Rethink].

They collect discarded seashells from seafood industries, and then process them - grinding and mixing them up?with mineral, sand and natural binders - to create a stone-like material that I guess would be flooring?

Palmade [Rethink].

This is supposed to be an antidote to single-use plastic, and yet this cutlery looks like your standard Vegware “bioplastic” stuff. Date palm biowaste is blended with biodegradable polymers from corn or sugarcane… same thing, not a solution.

Composites.

Not so much in the respect of a combination of ingredients (though that often is the case), this is more about a composite of methods, primarily that of inspiration from nature or craft, but made using some sort of technology.

Gareth Neal — Digitally Woven.

In collaboration with The New Raw — a Rotterdam-based research and design studio that has an in-house robotic manufacturing system — these pieces are 3D printed in space, rather than layers, using traditional crafts such as knitting and crochet as inspiration for the shapes and textures. I was obviously drawn to the product for this reason, but do appreciate that being able to manufacture products with very little input (and apparently using a thrice-recycled polymer) this is a craft unto itself.

bioMATTERS.

Another material that was there solely for aesthetic purposes, in my view. Contained in a perspex case they could easily have been missed for the bigger pieces, unless you were willing to chat to someone. It turns out that the colourful vials I thought were related to Silk Lab were in fact for this; “living organisms and bio pigments” used to 3D print objects.

karuun? [Rethink].

A patented material so not much clarity given. “When the capillaries are injected with various bulking agents, rattan is transformed from a non-timber product with limited use to a versatile, innovative material, that presents an alternative to other materials like plastic”. So it’s going to have longevity but doesn’t really acknowledge rattan’s inherent properties because it’s full of other stuff.

Desert Board PSB?.

It should be mentioned that all the Rethink materials are part of a UAE library — Colab Digital — and so the markets are mostly Middle East-focussed, and presumably the ingredient source too. This material is Palm Strand Board (looks like our standard chip board) manufactured locally in UAE from “abundantly annually regenerative Residual Palm Biomass”. I don’t know how sustainable this actually is, but guess they do have a lot of palms there, and it seems to have multiple applications for construction.

DaikaWOOD.

What’s probably most exciting about this material is that they highlight how the processing is streamlined and can use roving inputs, meaning that the wood waste ingredient (and binders) can come from streams local to the fabrication site. You then have a hyperlocal material that can be used locally in construction, so stripping down transportation emissions and costs too.

Material Magic?.

Hemp is usually bound with synthetic polymers in order to create a composite material, yet this project’s team are looking at natural alternatives, for instance magnesium (?) and potato starch. I don’t know how the former is used, or what properties it brings, but I’m all for finding solutions to improving construction waste (particularly when it gets demolished). Potato starch I imagine comes from a chip factory, like the potato peel used in Chip[s] Board. I see hemp composites as a material that could be locally repaired if needs be, so removing synthetic inputs is helpful for this system shift.

Solidwool.

I was simply excited to spot wool, finally, on the fifth floor. I was aghast that I’d only just realised wool hadn’t featured anywhere, despite its innate flameproof properties, and I wouldn’t have anticipated that this fibre be used so crisply, yet here it was as a smooth chair. So again I am like, more chairs, really? However this one is quite fun. It looks like a print of a sheep’s fleece, though is in fact 50% wool from Welsh Mountain or Herdwick sheep bound with 50% “bio-resin” — that they state '“do not compete with food sources or displace food-based agriculture”. The hand-turned ash legs and the recycled steel frame are made in England too. Solidwool are using those two sheep breeds because the wool currently has low value, however the Herdwick is improving in perceived value since James Rebanks highlighted his farming of them in his two books.

Vivèrdie Industries.

On show was their Vifour fabric made from 95% recycled textile scraps (exhibit said 95, site says 93). Except, they’re marketing it as both “closed loop” and “cradle-to-cradle”, neither of which this is. They currently sell an acoustic wall panel, but would like to “rival the ubiquity of cotton”. 95% means that 5% has to come from somewhere else, which according to the exhibit is a natural and synthetic binding material, on top of the recycled textile scraps that are a mish-mash of fibre blends anyway. They say the fibre (or mushy panels) are “infinitely recyclable”, another phrase that means nothing when you consider the material origin and end of life.

Social.

These exhibitors had a social element to their product, mostly as the driver for the creation of it, rather than a product made with social benefit in retrospect. A few entries to an annual PriestmanGoode brief with RCA MA Textiles students are included here, which inherently have a social element because the multi-disciplinary design studio operates in this way.

Head to the original article to read thoughts on these.

Plastic.

Perhaps self explanatory. It wasn't actually the materials segment with the main frustration, because plastic is plastic and there's no way around it, but the other areas where something man-made is classed as natural is what gets me. Nevertheless, plastic has its issues and there is a lot of greenwashing. I'm only highlighting one specific company here, so head to the original article for more information on the other products.

‘Modern Synthesis’.

This futuristic looking room showcased a shoe, a bag and a wallet made using their so-called biomaterials. Modern Synthesis is a biotech company who work with bacteria to “craft and entirely new class of natural materials, which displace animal-and-fossil-fuel derived alternatives”. They say that “the objects in this room were made by microbes, nurtured by nanobiologists, reinforced by robots and assembled by artisans”.

They have introduced a few materials in order to reach their goal of “a 50% absolute carbon reduction by 2027”. Materials include Ohoskin (bio-based alternative to leather made from the ‘byproduct’ of orange and cactus farming), Infinna?? (textile waste), Circulose? (recycled cotton, but totally man-made) and Mylo?? (mushroom ‘leather’).

Frankly I’ve given them a whole massive section with photo gallery of their own not to highlight how great they are, but the opposite. You have to be so careful with the promises that biotech companies are giving, not least because they use language that makes it seem so clean, plausible and accessible (in fact I really didn’t rate the copy on their signs). I’m actually not against Mylo or Circulose for the materials and concepts that they are (probably because I’ve spoken and heavily questioned them in person), but I am against this notion that biotech will save us. If you want to know the specifics why, perhaps leave a comment.

Other makers and designers for this category:

Design thinking.

On the first floor was a room from Pearson Lloyd set to educate you about how to design sustainably, all through the lens of their products made for workplaces. They say that, “As part of Pearson Lloyd’s ongoing research to improve the circularity of the mass-produced products for which we are responsible, we initiated an ongoing review of the material and manufacturing choices that we have made since we began in 1997”. Quite nice that they’re acknowledging their role, and that they’d like to encourage other designers into this circular design thinking. But what do they consider as circular?

Think I may make this into an article of itself; what the terms mean to industry. But here are the photos of the exhibit.

What?

The majority of these were on a floor together that I swiftly ripped around. Perhaps because I don’t have an office to furnish is why I didn’t care for these “innovations”, though seriously, who actually cares about these things? I don't want to give them the space here, but perhaps my commentary is fun to read. Head to the original article if you want more thoughts.

Food.

Yuhan Bai — Hushellaste Project.

Biomaterials made from agricultural and kitchen waste (but no further details). On display was a jacket that was fun. It reminded me of a tailored piece I made during my BTEC by heat pressing plastic bags together to create a fabric. It was unclear, but from the Isola Design Studio website it shows Yuhan Bai having experimented with using soil as a dye (extracting minerals for pigment).

Alara Sipahioglu — Crispy.

I mean it’s utterly pointless but also so fun. I can see them used in restaurants and cafes, especially because of the illustration that resembles the one used by Bao. The bowls are made using deconstructed post-consumer crisp packaging.

Carlotta Guccione — First We Eat.

Ceramic tiles are made from food waste and existing bricks. It was to be used in regeneration projects in a particular community in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, with food as a conversational starting point for the mainly Bangladeshi community.

Datecrete [Rethink].

I can’t imagine the scaling of this, but this uses crushed date seeds as an alternative to concrete. Apparently stronger than concrete.

Dateform [Rethink].

Another date seed one, this one for solid surfaces and they capture the look and feel of dates and their seeds.

Leukeather [Rethink].

Dried plant pods are used to resemble exotic leather. They say the raw material is a byproduct, but then also say the “manufacturing process integrates advanced technology” and so I don’t believe it can achieve water resistancy and malleability by not having some sort of PU coating.

Ananasse?? [Rethink].

Another one made to resemble exotic leather, but actually just resembles what it is — a pineapple. They say it can be “perforated, lasered, sewn and colored in various shades” so again, finishes and coatings to allow that.

Playful.

These I found fun or interesting, either for their form or their commentary, or both. Still, some are pointless.

Simon Frend: dyingarts — Closing The Circle.

Handmade from natural materials these cremation urns are designed to dissolve in water or gently biodegrade in the earth. It’s not particularly playful being that it’s a sombre topic, but I love that someone was considering this environmental impact.

Iammi — Frankenstein.

Didn’t really know what they should be; objets d’arts? furniture? They’re made from reclaimed pieces of industrial foam scraps and then it seems covered in leather. Bulky and obtrusive, but I can see them having a place.

Rowena Langru Lu — Serious Play.

From far away they looked like the beads you’d put into patterns on plastic pin boards and then iron to create a motif. But they weren’t, so I was disappointed. Utterly pointless, and only the maker has the play, but I guess they could evoke joy in the viewer.

I apologise that this article was so long, but hopefully you’ve just tracked to the section that you felt most appropriate to your needs. Though it’d be nice if you considered it all because that’s what the exhibition made visitors do (if they were hellbent on making use of the time like me, I guess). And as stated, you can read the full original article if you want more specific musings on the sections not fully covered above.

Here are some additional resources to find more designers/makers/studios of the materials shown. I’ve purposely not linked them all above because that would take forever, and frankly I don’t care about the backlinks (though if I’d given negative comments, maybe it gives them opportunity to enlighten me).

Isola Design Platform

Colab Digital materials library

London Design Festival

Material Matters

Green Grads

Thank you so much for reading through. Do comment if you have something to say. And if you appreciated the content, why not share with someone who also would.

Stephanie Steele is the founder of Steele Studio, a space that educates everyday folk on the interconnectedness of our food, fibre and fashion systems through community courses and workshops. As an organic food grower and textiles sustainability specialist, she otherwise writes about art, textiles, plants, running and systems design.

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