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Aharon Feiner Eden Materials Library
Israel
Collaboration
12 Designers
For the BioDesign Festival, we set up a collaboration with the esteemed Design Museum Holon. Integral to the museum its expansive material library, boasting a collection of over 10,000 diverse materials, serving as a resource for designers and innovators globally.
New materials and technologies are everywhere, rapidly changing the design industry. Materials and technologies can form the basis for a meaningful action in the design and industrial worlds. Researching the relationships between material, form and narrative often creates a unique design language that reveals the distinct identity of the designer, brand or culture from which they come. The collection includes materials developed by engineers, manufacturers, designers and artists. The materials collection is cataloged and documented in a bilingual online database, which serves as an essential tool for design professionals.
The Designers
Daniel Elkayam | YAMA
YAMA is an algae-based biopolymer. The biopolymer made from algae is composed of 100% renewable resources and has great potential for industrial production. The process involves boiling the substance with agar-agar and various natural oils before casting it onto an absorbent surface to aid in drying. This results in the formation of a thin, flexible sheet that can be recycled at the end of its life cycle. The material can be used as raw material for new sheets or allowed to biodegrade. Additionally, it can be produced in various shades of green and levels of translucence.
Yuli Meroz | O-PEEL
A compostable bioplastic material, made of fruit peels, mostly orange, pulp, and seeds combined with natural oils. The work with the material starts in its most natural form, with techniques of cutting and connecting the peels, and proceeds to more industrial processes of shredding and moulding into sheets.
Citrus fruit has a high percentage of pectin- a thickening agent used to create a jell texture in the food and medical industries and is crucial in creating this type of sheet. The level of elasticity, thickness, texture, transparency, and color can be controlled by changing the ratio between the material components and using different drying methods. Additional processes can be performed on the material - such as laser cutting, vacuum forming, or etching. The material is a by-product of the juice and fruit industry.
Avia Revivi | O-SOW
O-SOW is a material that manages waste throughout its entire life cycle from production to use and disposal. It is made from squeezed orange residues, aloe vera leaves, and plant seeds. It serves as a toilet paper substitute, leaving zero waste behind, and under optimal conditions, even nourishing the soil and growing plants.
It was discovered through motivation to find an environmental alternative to toilet paper. Among its characteristics, it is strong, flexible, soft, dissolves quickly, and liquefies in water, making it a viable alternative to different materials. In different quantities, it can be thicker, stronger, or softer, thus catering to a range of needs. It biodegrades within three to five days due to the rapid decomposition of the citrus, aided by the presence of active E. coli bacteria, which are found in human feces and accelerate the composting process.
It was discovered through motivation to find an environmental alternative to toilet paper. Among its characteristics, it is strong, flexible, soft, dissolves quickly, and liquefies in water, making it a viable alternative to different materials. In different quantities, it can be thicker, stronger, or softer, thus catering to a range of needs. It biodegrades within three to five days due to the rapid decomposition of the citrus, aided by the presence of active E. coli bacteria, which are found in human feces and accelerate the composting process.
UBQ Materials
The problem of waste is ubiquitous; therefore, the solutions must be as well. UBQ Materials converts unsorted landfill-destined household waste, an entirely heterogenic material that contains vegetation, paper, plastics, food leftovers, diapers, and other organic streams – into a homogenous thermo-plastic material - UBQ™. A climate-positive, cost-competitive, and fully recyclable raw material. The material is used as a sustainable alternative to oil-based resins and other conventional raw materials. Can be applied in a variety of technologies such as injection to compression moulding through to extrusion and
3D printing.
3D printing.
Liat Danieli | Bacterial cellulose
Leather-like material is produced from bacterial cellulose by growing bacteria in a process similar to that of growing yeast. The bacteria grow by eating sugar and liquids.The material obtained from the growth is viscous and flexible in the form of a sheet. The size and thickness of the sheet are affected according to the growing conditions and time. After drying, the material becomes harder, flexible, and can be slightly transparent, depending on its thickness. Each of the samples has a different level of flexibility/stiffness due to different material processing.
Yael Mordechay | Smokescreen
Cigarette butts have become part of the landscape and are the most common trash found in urban spaces and on beaches. The cigarette butt is made of a synthetic material called cellulose acetate, which absorbs many toxins during smoking. The cigarette waste that reaches the environment contains nicotine, heavy metals, and other chemicals that seep into the soil and water and harm animals and plants.
This research explores the potential of recycling waste material, focusing specifically on cigarette butts. The result is a new recycled material that highlights the potential of what we typically consider as trash. The new material is crisp, water-resistant, and has a plastic-like texture. Its color is influenced by the amount of toxins that the cigarette filter absorbs during smoking.
This research explores the potential of recycling waste material, focusing specifically on cigarette butts. The result is a new recycled material that highlights the potential of what we typically consider as trash. The new material is crisp, water-resistant, and has a plastic-like texture. Its color is influenced by the amount of toxins that the cigarette filter absorbs during smoking.
TIPA Compostable Packaging
TIPA develops fully compostable flexible packaging solutions for the food and fashion industries. The company offers single and multi-layer films and laminates made from compostable polymer blends that mimic conventional plastic (polyethylene and polypropylene) in terms of versatility, printability, sealability, transparency, and protective barrier, but fully biodegrade in a home or industrial composter within a few months, leaving no contaminated plastic residues behind.
Recyllose | Applied clean-tech
Recyllose ("Recycled Cellulose") is a renewable material produced from recovered sewage solids using sewage recycling technology. Large corporations can use the substance for various purposes, including as feedstock for manufacturing bioplastics, electricity and heat sources, paper additives, and energy-efficient biofuel. The sewage recycling system (SRSTM) functions as a sewage mining device that transforms solid waste into a new substance. The method can minimize sludge and greenhouse gas emissions while also producing a renewable resource, among other environmental advantages.
Prof. Daniel Mandler | Salt bricks
Very large quantities of table salt, i.e., sodium chloride, estimated at 20 million tons, accumulate every year in the Dead Sea as a by-product of the production of Potash. Professor Daniel Mandler from the Institute of Chemistry of the Hebrew University has shown that this salt can be used to manufacture construction bricks through a simple high-pressure compression process carried out at room temperature. The bricks, which are made through a green process with a low carbon footprint and contain 95% salt, are envisioned to replace cement which is the second largest industrial pollutant (the cement industry emits 8% of the global carbon dioxide mission). Salt bricks have many advantages such
as being extremely strong (5-10 times more than concrete), having antibacterial activity, excellentinsulation, and lower density than concrete.
as being extremely strong (5-10 times more than concrete), having antibacterial activity, excellentinsulation, and lower density than concrete.
Naama Nicotra | Toast it!
"Toast it" is an edible flavor sheet created using only natural ingredients. The main ingredient and binding material is agar agar, which is produced from algae. The designer has developed a method in which the material is poured and the flavors are adapted to it. The sheets are transparent, can be soldered and sealed, edible, and soluble in boiling water.
By using the production method, it is possible to control the materials and use them for producing graphics. The flavor sheets can be put as a topping in a sandwich or used as a seasoning and added to cooking. The material can also be used as an edible packaging material for food.
Balena |
BioCir®flex
Balena is a material science company, developing innovative compostable, biobased thermoplastic materials, replacing toxic, fossil fuel-based materials in consumer goods. Products made of BioCir®flex responsibly reach their end-of-life through complete decomposition and biodegradation in industrial compost facilities, completing a sustainable circular process.
The materials are suitable through injection molding, extrusion, and 3D printing. Description of the shoe: Balena’s R&D concept of fully compostable shoe: created using its own biodegradable, biobased, recyclable BioCir material.
The materials are suitable through injection molding, extrusion, and 3D printing. Description of the shoe: Balena’s R&D concept of fully compostable shoe: created using its own biodegradable, biobased, recyclable BioCir material.
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