Design Fest Gent: Be Wild, Act & Change!

The Exploded View – Biobased Creations

How do we deal with the never-ending waste flows? Will agriculture become a future supplier of building materials? And will this help keep our sustainable homes affordable? The Exploded View Materials & Methods investigates these questions, and invites everyone to participate in this thinking process. The realisation of a home is looked at from a radically new angle. The Exploded View analyses the many applications of a home with great precision, and then reconstructs it with bio-based materials. Lose yourself in a model and a life size blueprint that highlight both what they have already discovered, but also what they do not yet know.

The installation incorporates applications and materials from today, tomorrow and even the day after tomorrow, ranging from products that already exist, but are still not commonly used on building sites, to ideas that will need a lot of support and research to become fully developed. The Exploded View thereby refers to the endless, potential material flows that do exist, but are not yet or hardly ever used in the building trade. Food remnants, textiles, (waste) water or bacteria: nothing is excluded or found to be unsuitable. Innovative construction methods such as local mining, 3D printing and a circular economy also have a part to play in the research. In every case, the purpose is to use materials and methods that make the production circle as small and efficient as possible.

The Exploded View, developed by Biobased Creations in conjunction with The Embassy of Circular & Biobased Building, a group of pioneers from the circular and bio-based construction sector, serves as inspiration for the circular and bio-based building sector. It shows citizens, builders and policy makers the surprising opportunities and attractions. The unthinkable is possible. The power of imagination is heralding a green future.

Nest – LUCA Textiles x KU Leuven Architectuur Campus Sint Lucas Gent x iDrops

A nomadic installation descends upon the Design Museum. A textile womb, a tactile safe space, a NEST. Security and protection are at the heart of this NEST, which aims to disseminate sustainability, not only physically, but also in a social sense. Under the coordination of Marie Mees and Caroline Voet, textile students and alumni of Luca | School of Arts, KU Leuven – the Faculty of Architecture and iDROPS have created an installation to support the psychosocial well-being of young adults suffering from cancer or chronic diseases. Immerse yourself in the NEST and experience how creativity can stimulate and bring about social change.

NEST is based on 2SPACES, a project from iDROPS and Arteconomy in which patients and artists join forces to try to find an artistic interpretation emotions and how to express them. NEST provides a location in which people can meet in a safe and secure environment. Testimonies, conversations, workshops, lectures, creations, films, meditation and sleep: anyone can use the space in their own individual way.

NEST explores the boundaries between textile and architecture. It follows a grid, a framework in which connections are created in which temporary occupants play a part by rolling, folding and feeling textiles. Textiles envelop, provide space but also demarcate at the same time. Larger than a bed, but smaller than a house. Together or alone.

NEST will be located at the Design Museum Gent during the Design Fest Gent. The minimalistic structure of wooden frames will be used for panel discussions on neurodiversity and patient empowerment – or as a chat and listening room. This is how NEST aims to support and foster young people who are ill.

Alga – Studio Samuel Tomatis

Algae are taking over the beaches in Brittany at an alarming rate. Eutrophication – a process in which oxygen is extracted from the water as a result of pollution – allows this organic but polluting and toxic material to proliferate. Unusable? Not according to ALGA, a project run by Studio Samuel Tomatis that highlights a study initiated five years ago that reveals the thousand and one properties of seaweed. Re-purposing local waste and using it as a production material for design and layout is one of the major challenges we are faced with today.

Samuel Tomatis has been collaborating closely with specialists from various scientific fields in recent years. Not only did he understand the intrinsic properties and qualities of algae, he also processed them using artisanal methods. Joining forces with a chemist, Tomatis managed to deploy a semi-industrial process to develop new materials entirely made of algae.

The properties of different types of algae are the basis for a number of practical applications, ranging from furniture to lighting, tools and building materials, food packaging and textile. Moreover, these new materials have fascinating characteristics. Tomatis has a surprising approach to texture, mechanical resistance, flexibility, biodegradability and opalescence – light diffusion.

At Design Fest Gent you will be able to experience first-hand what the close link between science and design can signify in terms of a sustainable future. Follow the path from algae to design, from research to functional applications. As an inter-discipline exploit ALGA not only highlights the diversity, but also how today’s design world can play its part in the pressing debate about sustainability.

Waterschool M4H+ – Studio Makkink & Bey

The water is up to our neck. Waterschool M4H+, a project managed by Studio Makkink & Bey, combines and showcases the work of more than 30 designers, architects and artists in an impressive exhibit. They analyse materials that could be used as (building)materials and/or food, whilst maintaining a responsible approach to the use of water.

Staged at the behest of IABR (the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam) the research started by asking what the new residential and working environment in the Merwe-Vierhaven area of Rotterdam (M4H+) could look like. Using available coarse and raw materials, the aim is to find sustainable building alternatives. This is how Waterschool M4H+ manages to outline how they are creating living spaces in which various biotopes interact.

Waterschool M4H+ profiles itself as a temporary centre of expertise and considers how water could play a more significant role in education, e.g. they are creating partnerships to integrate artists and designers in the curricula. The objective: to get to grips with alternatives and unconventional approaches to problems.

Waterschool M4H+ is investigating how a range of resources contribute to a circular living environment. Insects, duckweed, seaweed, wood and fungi are the five unconventional resources in the spotlight that could shape our future (co)existence. Using a streamlined amalgam of projects, Studio Makkink & Bey alludes to a future in which art and design will become a more important part of education and, by extension, society. You are cordially invited to join us and dive into, swim and splash in the wondrous world of Waterschool.