Seaweed Leather

Bio-Material Explorations
Mentors:   Martin Bechthold &  Daniel Tish Team:  Bryce Crawford, Harshika Bisht, & Abhishek Desai
                                 

The seminar studio focused on exploring the potential of biologically-derived materials to solve the environmental challenges posed by rapid global climate change. The aim is to break the unsustainable cycle of material extraction, use, and landfill by designing and constructing buildings and consumer products that operate without using fossil fuels and emitting CO2. The seminar covered various biological materials, including plants, plant fibers, fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms. We as a team emphasized on their application in buildings and consumer products, taking into account the geographical scale and landscapes required for their production. We as a team explored the impact of these biomaterial systems on the climate, investigating their production landscapes and ecological effects. We selected Seaweed as a material which to further expand our study and to develop a prototype.