CHAPTER 13

Sustainable Multipurpose Materials

for Design
Sascha Peters
Haute Innovation e Agentur für Material & Technologie

CONTENTS
Biobased Material Design .......................................................................................................................170
Lightweight Material Design .................................................................................................................172
Smart Material Design .............................................................................................................................175
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................179
References...................................................................................................................................................179

The world of materials is going through radical changes. Diminishing resources, new energy challenges,
and stricter environmental restraints are forcing producers and developers to change their mind-set.
Customers increasingly ask for products for which the different aspects of sustainable product and
design culture are a top priority. The “sustainability” factor has become a definite commercial selling
point. The orientation of our industrial culture is undergoing rapid changes (Peters, 2010).
At the same time, a reorientation of the perceived role of the designer in the innovation process has
taken place. The role has gone from “application-oriented implementer to a conceptually deliberating
original thinker who, through an active dialogue with manufacturers, fosters the development of new
materials or production processes or develops them himself” (Bürdek and Eisele, 2011). “The emphasis
turns from the attributes of a material to its performance. Designers engage in the technologizing of
materials and proactively determine the material behavior instead of only taking it into account”
(Klooster, 2009).
Countless developments support the notion that a real reversal in the classic view of innovation has
taken place (Stöck, 2012). Designers no longer just contribute a “postproduction beautification” at
the end stage of a technological innovation. They are rather equal partners and an integral part of the
development process (Peters, 2007). More and more often, the development of a material and
the elaborating of its application no longer take place separately in sequential processes, one after the
other, but instead take place simultaneously (Peters, 2011a). In this way, the development of the
material is able early on to take into account important information as to the future context of its 169
Materials Experience. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-099359-1.00013-8
Copyright Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
170 C H A P T E R 13 : Sustainable Multipurpose Materials for Design

application. Also, in accordance with the wishes of numerous innovation researchers, the needs of the
marketplace are the focal point of research activity from the very beginning.
The changed view of a designer’s role in relation to the growing awareness of the importance of sus-
tainability in design is most evident in the numerous developments in the fields of material and
technology that have been implemented in recent years. Examples include bioplastics derived from fish
scales, furniture with a surface made of bacterial cellulose, or a car body that was spun by robots. Such
developments have become part of the established knowledge in the world of high-tech research.
Designers use scientific advances to satisfy the growing need for a product culture that prizes sustain-
ability. Small wonder, then, that most advances have taken place in the fields of biobased materials,
innovative lightweight construction solutions, and smarter materials.

BIOBASED MATERIAL DESIGN

Furniture made of popcorn, lamps out of coffee grounds (Raúl Laurí), or throw-away sandals made of
palm leaves (Tjeerd Veenhoven): the trend toward biobased solutions is currently spilling over from the
supermarket to the creative sector, bringing with it ever more fantastic concepts, much to the delight of
the savvy disciples of design. Spurred on by the longing for a clean and ecologically sound world, the
modern designer’s shopping list is a clear demand aimed at material producers: production should be
based on renewable raw materials and products should be recyclable and biodegradable.
The use of organic waste in product production has played an important role in allowing designers to
surmount previous boundaries of feasibility. Certainly, one of the most interesting ideas is represented
by the work of the Berlin designer Julian Lechner, who, in his “Ex-presso” project (2010), used coffee
grounds from an espresso machine as the basic material for the production of cups whereby he bonded
the particles with natural binders like casein or bioresins (Figure 13.1). Upon using caramelized sugar
as a binder, he made a very interesting discovery: during use, the coffee in such a cup actually served to
slowly dissolve it, which had the effect of adding aroma to the drink. The Italian designer Raúl Laurí

FIGURE 13.1
Coffee cup made of coffee grounds by Julian Lechner.
 Biobased Material Design 171

went even one step further by exhibiting at the Milan Furniture Fair the lamp collection “Decafé
Lamps”, the lampshades of which were made from coffee grounds.
The Dutch designer Mandy den Elzen (http://mandydenelzen.com) has also attracted a lot of attention
through the use of unusual organic waste materials. After her project “Algae vase” (2009), in which she
transformed algae fibers into containers and vases, she began in 2011 to use waste material from cows
like, for example, the cow stomach, in order to create a kind of leather-looking material with an
interesting hexagonal honeycomb structure. The material is somewhat transparent and is available
under the name “Rumen Leather” in pieces in sizes up to 400
500 mm with a thickness starting
at 3 mm.
The London designer Erik de Laurens is responsible for one of the most bizarre recent developments. It
was based on a discovery he made during a development aid project in a Cape Town township. Mr de
Laurens was able to make a material out of fish scales that could be used to produce molded parts like
goggle frames and drinking cups by means of applying heat and pressure without the need of a binder
(Figure 13.2). In doing so, he made a discovery that could play an important role in the transition from
petrobased to biobased chemistry.
In the realm of bioplastic production, the Dutch designer Thomas Vailly has also made a noteworthy
contribution (Figure 13.3). For the occasion of the Milan Design Week 2012, he prepared a presen-
tation of a production process for making drinking cups that uses human hair as the fiber material in
the production of molded parts. He mixed the hair with glycerin and sodium sulfite, which produced a
bioplastic resembling leather that was capable of being formed into all different kinds of shapes. It goes
without saying that the material is 100% naturally compostable.
In the search for alternatives to synthetically made materials, producers are meanwhile turning to
organic growth processes that are actuated by bacteria, enzymes, or fungi. One of the most famous
examples is the production of rigid foam by Ecovative Design in New York that is based on a
mycelium fungus network. The cultivation of fungi has in the meantime attracted such a large fan
base that even designers have acquired an interest in the new possibilities. The Academy of Media
Arts Cologne has installed the project “Fungutopia” as an on-line community in order to promote

FIGURE 13.2
Material made of 100% fish scales by Erik de Laurens.
172 C H A P T E R 13 : Sustainable Multipurpose Materials for Design

FIGURE 13.3
“The metabolic factory” by Thomas Vailly.

the know-how necessary for using fungi in medicine or as food or fertilizer. According to the ini-
tiators Laura Popplow and Tine Tillmann, fungi are very easy to cultivate and are consequently
ideally suited for use as a biomass producer, especially in big cities (http://www.makeandthink.de/
fungutopia/).
Cellulose fiber is one of the most important fibers for the textile industry. In recent years, fzmb GmbH, a
research center for medical technology and biotechnology, has researched the process by which
microbes can “spin” cellulose through fermentation and the way in which gellike textile surfaces with
thicknesses up to 4 cm can be organically grown. Compared to plant-based cellulose, bacteria-based
cellulose is much thinner. It consists of a high-complexity nanostructure. It contains small constitu-
ent elements such as lignin, which make the fibers highly flexible and very stable at the same time.
Bacterial cellulose can grow into almost any shape and can be produced on a variety of sugar-containing
substrates. Due to its biocompatibility and high purity, bacterial cellulose has found application in the
medical/cosmetic fields and was used in the design field by Jannis Huelsen in the Project “Xylinum” to
create a special surface on a wooden chair (http://www.skin-futurematerials.com).
With his “FluidSolids”, the designer Beat Karrer from Zurich has succeeded in developing a shapeable
mass that can be processed using the conventional forming procedures. The base material is made up of
industrial by-products from renewable raw materials and holds its eventual shape through the use of
protein-based natural binders. In addition to its odor- and emission-free processability, it also requires
less energy input than conventional material processing (Figure 13.4).

LIGHTWEIGHT MATERIAL DESIGN

“Spinnenrad mit Hüftschwung” (Spider wheel with Hip Swing) was the title of an article in the
magazine Der Spiegel that chronicled one of the most unusual competitions found in the Republic of
 Lightweight Material Design 173

FIGURE 13.4
FluidSolidsdmolded shapes by Beat Karrer. In Peters, 2012a.

Germany: the Cordless Screwdriver Race. In 2011, the seventh edition of this event was held at the HTW
Hildesheim (College of Technology and Economics, Hildesheim). Design students from all over
Germany and Switzerland were invited to compete against one another in vehicles whose only power
source was a standard cordless screwdriver. What at first glance may have looked like a recreational
activity, upon closer inspection turned out to be a serious scientific project. This is because it was not
only the speed of the vehicles that mattered but rather more specifically the development of unusual
solutions to the production of lightweight constructions. The success of electric mobility will depend to
a crucial degree on the progress of weight reduction measures in construction elements. High-strength
lightweight polymer construction solutions, carbon fiber materials, or bionic constructions using
generative technology (three-dimensional printing, laser sintering): every pared down gram of material
allows the reduction of the dimensions of the battery and increases the range. These are factors, then,
that will be decisive influences on market acceptance of electromobility.
A good example of a material efficient production process for furniture based on a generative design
principle comes from the Dutch designer Dirk vander Kooij at the DMY Design Festival in Berlin 2011
(Figure 13.5). He only used shredded plastic waste from refrigerators and a robotic arm. The plastic
particles are melted down in a container until a nicely flowing mass is formed. The robotic arm then
travels over a path determined by the shape of the desired construction piece, emitting said liquid
plastic along the way. As the plastic cools it becomes hard. Layer after layer is added until the furniture
(in this case a chair) is completely formed.
The Nanospyder is another designer-initiated project concept for using generative production as a way
to increase material efficiency, this time from the Volkswagen Design Studio in California. This entry in
the LA Design Challenge displays in an exceedingly impressive manner how innovations in materials
and in fabrication techniques will change car construction in the future. The designer’s plan consists of
billions of tiny nanodevices measuring less than half a millimeter in diameter automatically attaching
themselves to one another to form the lightweight construction structure of a new automobile. Thanks
to this cumulative and highly flexible fabrication process, the weight, performance, and energy
174 C H A P T E R 13 : Sustainable Multipurpose Materials for Design

FIGURE 13.5
Generative furniture production using plastic waste, by Dirk vander Kooij. In Peters, 2012b.

efficiency is optimized. Material only expresses itself where it is in fact necessary. In addition, there are
intelligent deformable zones that are programmed to anticipate exterior forces and adjust accordingly
(crumple zones), thereby providing a high degree of safety.
Designers are also in the business of demanding that classic construction materials be replaced with
natural materials that have lightweight construction potential. The US designer Craig Calfee was one of
the first to produce a bicycle frame made of bamboo. The advantages of bamboo are numerous: it is a
fast growing grass that has enough strength to withstand compressive forces and has special vibration
dampening characteristics as welldall of which make it an excellent choice for use as a construction
material. This, then, leads to designers turning to a bamboo construction in applications where nor-
mally aluminum would have been used, with the further advantage that the bamboo version can be
built in a developing country like the Philippines.
By designing a middle layer made out of bamboo cane pieces that are cut at an angle, Wassilij Grod
from Conbou has recently come up with a material efficient construction solution called Bambus-
Leichtbau-Platte, which is a lightweight bamboo composite board (Figure 13.6). The construction
provides a high degree of compressive strength with a reduced amount of material. In addition, by
employing ring structures the amount of waste is reduced to a minimum. A further advantage is that by
varying the configuration of the core, the firmness of the board can be adjusted for different uses in
furniture, trade show, and stage constructions or coachwork. This project was awarded first prize at the
European Architecture and Design Competition “ADREAM” in 2010.
The lightweight construction element, a creation by the designer and architect Jens-Hagen Wüstefeld,
represents a material-independent, purely constructive way of accomplishing material efficiency
 Smart Material Design 175

FIGURE 13.6
Bamboo lightweight composite board, by Wassilij Grod.

(http://www.haute-innovation.com/en/magazine/lightweight/lightweight-construction-element.
html). The elements consist of a crystal lattice comprising triangles, a structure capable of withstanding
introduced forces from all directions and distributing them to the adjoining areas and edges. This
structure has enabled a weight reduction of 85% as compared to solid material. Round, spherical, and
profiled elements can be made of different materials and directly linked with one another. Any type of
material can be used to produce the elements by simply making diagonal cuts in strips of the chosen
material and interlocking the strips with one another.
Spiders have populated the earth for about 400 million years and have developed various methods for
capturing their prey. One of the most well known is of course the spider web. The fibers and nets
produced by spiders in the wild have a unique stability and elasticity. Spider silk, in relation to its
extremely fine structure, is as hard as steel and as elastic as rubber. For years, scientists have tried to solve
the puzzle of spider silk and to reproduce it industrially. Prof. Thomas Scheibel has finally succeeded.
Using a fermentation process that treats genetically modified bacteria, spider silk proteins can be
created in unlimited amounts and these can then be spun into a thread material. This new technology
prompted the designers at Nissan to develop a futuristic concept car for the LA Design Challenge 2010
(Figure 13.7). The Nissan iV is a super lightweight four seater made from “organic synthetics” that can
be cultivated like agriculture. Every detail of the Nissan iV is predicated on sustainability and lightness.
Fast-growing ivy reinforced with spider silk forms a flexible, ultralight, and extremely strong
biopolymer frame.

SMART MATERIAL DESIGN

Printed photovoltaic elements used as a location-independent electrical power supply to components,
surfaces with transformable transparency and color attributes, systems that make it possible to produce
individual energy: smart or intelligent material solutions such as these integrate several functions that
176 C H A P T E R 13 : Sustainable Multipurpose Materials for Design

FIGURE 13.7
The concept car Nissan iV, by Nissan Design America.

reduce the extra material use and have the effect of stimulating the denizens of the creative world to
more and more outstanding advancements and breakthroughs. One great example is “Solid Poetry”, a
concrete material developed by the Dutch designer Frederik Molenschot that reveals a hidden design or
message when it is exposed to rain or moisture (Figure 13.8). The material, which in the meantime has
also become known as “Blumenbeton” (flowering concrete), has been furnished with a special coating
that reacts to water. In pedestrian zones and public places, this intelligent concrete makes possible a
new kind of urbane sign language.
Another interesting development in the construction material sector that was realized by an interdis-
ciplinary team that included an artist, an architect, physicists, and engineers is the product BlingCrete
(Figure 13.9). It is based on the optical phenomenon of retroreflection being used as a means of making
communicative surfaces on construction materials (Zimmermann, 2012). This is accomplished

FIGURE 13.8
Solid Poetry, by Fredrik Molenschot. In Peters, 2010.
 Smart Material Design 177

FIGURE 13.9
BlingCrete by Heike Klussman and Thorsten Klooster. In Peters, 2011c.

through the integration of micro glass balls in the top layer of the concrete. The result is that incident
light is always reflected back in the exact direction from which it came. Based on this principle, things
like the edges of platforms, stairs, or sidewalks can be marked out for safety purposes without all the
complications involved in the use of electronic components. This results from the fact that if one finds
oneself in the focus of the reflection, the glass balls can be clearly seen but from other angles they seem
to disappear.
Producing light in an organic way was designer Nicola Bruggraf’s big idea. She created an installation
with lights that were based on the “bioluminescence” principle and these elements reacted to the
movements of the museum’s patrons by emitting light. Acting as a kind of organic motion sensor, the
installation, which was mounted for the Light þ Building tradeshow in Frankfurt, gave the visitors
direct feedback, thereby responding to any behavior taking place within the range of operation. And
this all without any electricitydwhich was not needed because the organisms (single-celled algae)
produced their energy during the day by means of photosynthetic processes and released it in the
evening as light.
Piezoelectricity is a great source of potential advances in the realm of design and product development,
especially in the context of small-size energy systems (Ritter, 2006). After Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in the United States developed an athletic shoe at the end of the 1990s that was able to
produce energy while being used for running, the number of other technological uses designers
discovered grew immensely. Probably the most famous of these is the flooring system “Power-Leap”,
which was developed by the designer Elizabeth Redmond in 2006 at the University of Michigan.
Another example is seen in the use of piezoelectricity by Döll Architects in the “Sustainable Dance
Club” in Rotterdam (Figure 13.10). The kinetic energy produced by the dancing patrons is transferred
through the flooring and used to directly generate the energy required for the lighting of the club and
the operation of the spotlights. If, then, the dance floor is empty, the amount of light in the room will
decrease accordingly.
178 C H A P T E R 13 : Sustainable Multipurpose Materials for Design

FIGURE 13.10
Sustainable Dance Club, by Döll Architects. In Peters, 2012b.

A most interesting irrigation system for the dry regions of the world, which is based on the principle of the
hydrophilic skin of the Namibian beetle, was awarded the James Dyson Award in November 2011. The
beetle’s microscopically small skin structure gives it the capability of “extracting” water from the air; the
beetle can thus survive in even the driest desert regions. Dewdrops stick to the skin, gather together on
the water-absorbing surface, and drip off onto the thick chitin shell and run down channels into its
mouth. The Australian designer Edward Linacre analyzed this phenomenon and transferred the working
principle to an irrigation system. Airdrop pumps air through a network of underground pipes to cool it to
the point at which the water condenses, thereby extracting the moisture out of the air (Figure 13.11). The
water is then distributed to the plants. According to the calculations of the developer, as much as
11.5 ml water can be extracted from a cubic meter of air even in excessively dry areas.

FIGURE 13.11
Airdrop, by Edward Linacre.
 Conclusion 179

CONCLUSION
These examples show how the current design process is more and more concerned with high-tech
solutions. The role of designers has changed noticeably in recent years, from that of an application-
focused consumer to a conceptually deliberating thought-leader seeking novel possibilities. In addi-
tion, designers have now, through all the research on novel materials and new production processes,
been provided with options that themselves will prompt even greater changes in the design process in
the future. The interdisciplinary dialogues between the research, technologization, and design fields will
lead to sustainable product development, with new types of material also playing a more and more
important role.
The representatives of the creative industries work together with manufacturers to encourage the
development of new materials or manufacturing process or develop them on their own. They thereby
transfer the rudimentary achievements of the research sector into a successful application context
and are the forerunners of a new material and design culture that is based on sustainability factors.
Designers engage in the technologizing of materials and proactively determine the behavior of mate-
rials instead of only passively taking it into account. A sustainable product culture is based on inter-
disciplinary processes among the research, technology, and design sectors.

References
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Klooster, T., 2009. Smart Surfaces and Their Application in Architecture and Design. Birkhäuser, Basel, Switzerland.
Peters, S., 2007. Power of Material. Form 217. Birkhäuser, Basel, Switzerland.
Peters, S., 2010. Material Revolution e Sustainable Multi-purpose Materials for Design and Architecture. Birkhäuser, Basel,
Switzerland.
Peters, S., January 2011a. Materials Shape Products e Increase Innovation and Market Opportunities with the Help of Creative
Professionals. Hessian Ministry of Economics, Transport, Urban and Regional Development, Wiesbaden, Germany.
Peters, S., May 2011c. Materialien einer neuen Designkultur. In: Eisele, P., Bürdek, B.E. (Eds.), Design Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts.
Avedition, Ludwigsburg, Germany.
Peters, S., April 2012a. Organische Gestaltung e Biomasse für den Designbewussten. Design-Report 4/2012, Leinfelden-
Echterdingen, Germany.
Peters, S., September 2012b. Smart Energy Materials. Hessian Ministry of Economics, Transport, Urban and Regional Develop-
ment, Wiesbaden, Germany.
Ritter, A., 2006. Smart Materials in Architecture, Interior Architecture and Design. Birkhäuser, Basel, Switzerland.
Stöck, S., 2012. Innovation durch Design, Vernetzung und Digitalisierung. Hessian Ministry of Economics, Transport, Urban and
Regional Development, Wiesbaden, Germany.
Zimmermann, S., May 2012. Smart Surfaces at Urban Scale. Master Thesis, TU Berlin.