GREEN GRADS at GRAND DESIGNS LIVE – Groundbreaking Biodesign, new materials from waste, and The Mending Hub

Notes to editors GREEN GRADS at GRAND DESIGNS LIVE Groundbreaking Biodesign, new materials from waste, and The Mending Hub 10am-5pm May 4^th – May 12^th 2024 ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1XL https://www.granddesignslive.com/green-grads Tickets available to buy here: https://www.granddesignslive.com/ticket-info Website: www.greengrads.co.uk / Instagram: @greengradsuk         About GREEN GRADS   Green Grads, now in its third year, was founded in 2021 by design editor Barbara Chandler, @sunnygran, known for her long-running pages in the London Evening Standard. Co-director and show orchestrator is Michael Czerwinski of Studio Tucktite, @tucktite, who is long experienced in events/fairs/media. They say: “Our vision is to fuel UK environmental action with new talent from UK Universities.” There are now 150 Green Grads listed on their website. They come from a wide range of disciplines, from art to engineering, additionally including product and furniture design, materials innovation, animation, graphics, ceramics, glass, textiles, fashion, interior design and architecture. Green Grads operate in many different ways. They might choose to tackle one or more of the following issues: nurturing nature, inventing materials, designing to last, eliminating waste, restoring and repairing, recycling and “closing loops” for a more circular economy, capturing carbon, saving energy, fighting pollution, conserving resources, and/or rescuing species. www.greengrads.co.uk / @greengradsuk More details of individual Green Grads are listed alphabetically below: High-res images are available here (add a link for press).

1. Becky Brentnall 

Becky’s childhood garden imbued in her a lifelong passion for nature – particularly seasonal UK flowers. Now, endless drawings and paintings have become dramatic large-scale textiles, up to four metres in length, hand-painted and screen-printed onto natural fabrics using Manutex, a seaweed-based thickener. Before going back to university, Becky trained/worked as a landscape architect and florist “My pieces celebrate and promote the beauty of nature; bringing it inside on a large-scale to enrich home and business interiors.” Becky is the winner of the Green Grads Epson Textile Challenge 2023. Becky has a BA in Surface Pattern and Textile Design from Staffordshire University @becky_designs.uk  

2. Caroline LA Wheeler

Artist/sculptor Caroline has created an installation especially for Grand Design Live. It is called Grains and Chains: An Act of Measured Material. It asserts that sand is the second-most used resource on Earth, after water, and the bedrock of human construction. And protests that the world is running out of sand, with humans to blame.  Caroline has built a “chain” of linked images and text protesting the impact of sand depletion on landscape and habitats, and other knock-on environmental effects. It measures 66 feet, the length of a historic Gunter ’s chain. This old-established surveyor’s tool dates back to around 1620 and was used to measure out not only the British Empire, but also the American wilderness and early settlements. It has 100 links, usually marked off into groups of 10 by brass rings or tags. It has left a permanent imprint on the way land is measured and divided in the United Kingdom and America. Thus 1 rod = ¼ chain or 16.5 feet; 1 furlong = 10 chains or 660 feet; 1 mile = 80 chains or 5,280 feet;​ 1 acre = 10 square chains or 43,560 square feet. Caroline has an MA Jewellery and Metal from Royal College of Art. www.carolinelawheeler.com @claw.artworks    

3. Dhruv Shah

Dhruv’s project Decentralised Mycelium Housing has at its core mycelium blocks and enables low-skilled people in poorer countries to build themselves a house. Instructions are published “open source” (ie free to all) on the internet for making auxetic lattice jute moulds for 50cm x 50cm blocks out of wheat/rice straw and oyster/reishi mushroom spawn (mycelium). Laid on top of each other, the blocks are stabilised with scaffolding until the mycelium fully grows and binds the house together. Dhruv has an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins, UAL http://www.myceliumhousing.com  

4. Elizabeth Lee

Elizabeth Lee, along with fellow graduates Eden Harrison, Ori Blich, and Juan Ignacio Rion, has invented Carbon Cell, a fully compostable, non-toxic and carbon-negative replacement for expanded polystyrene (EPS) and other polymer-based foams. Its crucial ingredient is biochar, made by pyrolysis. During this process, intense heat in an oxygen-poor environment turns organic biomass, including waste streams such as potato peelings or even discarded textiles, into a form of carbon that is stable for decades or longer. Because it’s made with biochar, Carbon Cell is carbon-negative. This means that it removes more CO2 from the atmosphere than it makes. Even with the additional processing needed to turn biochar into this foam material, using Carbon Cell instead of EPS results in 3.7kg less CO2 emissions for every kg of material used. Carbon Cell is three times stronger than EPS and other bio-based alternatives. It has good thermal conductivity and fire resistance, and comparable sound insulation to EPS foam. This radical new material has many potential applications, from food packaging to construction, and can easily be moulded into different shapes to order. Elizabeth, Eden, Ori and Juan have a double MSc/MA in Innovation Design Engineering from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art Carbon Cell @carbon_cell_co  

5. Emma Money

Cyanoskin is a new kind of “green wall” – an innovative “living” exterior paint for mid- and high-rise buildings, available in a range of natural shades. Once applied, the photosynthetic paint grows and thickens, creating a living layer that acts as a carbon sink. This start-up is already winning commercial recognition with awards and major funding. Its team is interdisciplinary designer and material scientist Emma and entrepreneur Antoinette Nothomb, working with biochemist Brishti Miller and Cambridge engineer Hayley Huang. They are also exploring ways additionally to foster the growth of moss, for a greater “sensory experience.” This start-up won the Young Change Makers Grant, the Arts Foundation Regenerative Design nomination and the Climate Entrepreneurs Club Prize. It is also more recently the winner of the Institution of Engineering Net Zero and Future Cities award, competing against BT and AstraZeneca, as well as winning a Net Zero Innovate UK Government grant. Emma has an MA in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Art (RCA). @cyanoskin Cyanoskin – Worlds Most CO2 Absorbent Paint          

6. Hannah Rot

Hannah is a very new Green Grad – in fact she is still at Chelsea College of Art finishing her degree in Product and Furniture Design. Her project is a reaction to the huge amount of materials imported for manufacturing in the UK. “Let’s keep it local – very local,” says Hannah. So she’s made a stool with a top using clay from Stave Hill Ecological Park and sycamore legs from a coppice in East London – and partly carried out the work on Hampstead Heath. Hannah is a skilful potter and has an Etsy shop. @hanka__design  

7. Jacob Marks

Jacob, a young designer-maker with a studio in Peckham, laments the poor state of British woodlands – “only 7% are in ‘good ecological condition’ and we are importing timber because we grow so little.” Accordingly, Jacob’s The Isles Collection inspires and initiates change, combining a variety of British timbers in a beautiful patchwork of modern marquetry for tables, benches, cabinets and shelves, available to commission. From white oak and ash to lesser known alder and wild service, this furniture celebrates the vast – but threatened – variety of our native timbers. Pieces come with full provenance, to show not only the link between product and place but also how local sourcing reduces carbon miles.  Jacob has a  BA in Product & Furniture Design from Kingston University. @_jacob_marks http://www.jacobmarks.co.uk  

8. Jean White

Future Fossils are the ceramics Jean makes to raise awareness of threatened “red-list” British bird species. “As a keen birdwatcher, I have seen the decline in bird numbers first-hand, since I was a child in the 1960s.”  Trained as an illustrator, Jean uses her skills to carve her drawings into clay, then making plaster moulds and finally slip casting each piece in either porcelain or Parian clay.  Jean has an MA in Design: Craft from Manchester Metropolitan University @jeanwhiteceramics www.jeanwhiteceramics.co.uk  

9. Jessica Kirkpatrick

“Sustainability and circularity are a constant in my work as I evolve my practice to support our planet’s growth rather than hinder it,” says Green Grad Jess,  who calls her project Growing Home. She is continuously researching “how we as textile designers can reduce the pollution and waste of the printing process.” Fundamental to her work are ongoing explorations of the local plants in her home country of Lancashire, testing natural dyes and mordants, with endless experiments to extract the most vivid and full range of colours. “My work is always centred around the natural world, making sure I do as little damage to environment as I can.” Jess has an MA in Textiles from the RCA. www.jesskirkpatrick.com @jesskirkpatrick_  

10. Lucia Giron

“Photosynthesis is the biological alchemy that supports almost all life on earth, and it is the most promising ‘net-negative’ technology we know,” explains Lucia, a London-based multidisciplinary designer who has an MA in Biodesign from Central Saint Martins.  “My project Make Like a Leaf uses the building blocks of photosynthesis – simply air, water, and light – as tools for design.” She’s harnessing a process called “photosynthetic biomineralization” in which living cynobacteria capture carbon from surrounding air and convert it into a binding mineral. The result is a living carbon-hungry material that interacts with and responds to its atmosphere. Adds Lucia: “Accordingly, you have to treat this material not like a brick but as a leaf – it’s a completely new approach to construction. Let’s use the logic of ecology to bring about change.” @luc.iagiron http://www.luciabgiron.net   11 & 12. Lucy Ralph and Jade Durling Green Grads’ popular Mending Hub is coming to Grand Designs! Here Lucy and Jade will demo how darning and patching can make your clothes not only last longer but look more beautiful and personal. Welcome to the world of visible mending! Bring something you’ve mended or would like to mend to share with Lucy and Jade. Or stitch something new from their stash of old clothes. Or simply watch and maybe learn a few stitches. No appointment needed and completely free. Lucy has a BA in Surface Pattern and Textiles from the University of Wales Trinity St. David. @ patch.d_ @lucytrousers Also taking part in the Mending Hub is Jade Durling, a 2022 Green Grad, who has a BA in Textile Design from, Birmingham City University. “I have always enjoyed mending my clothing and other textiles – replacing buttons and patching up holes. Darning for me is a mindful activity, making a small comment on much larger environmental issues surrounding fast-fashion and throwaway culture.” Slow down and care for what you own, she says. And Jade has also explored natural dyes for threads and fabrics, linking this to her biomaterials research. “My aim was a complete colour wheel from madder red to spirulina green.” @jadesews  

13. Martha Wiles

What or who is a food activist? Well, Green Grad ceramicist and illustrator Martha for one. She’s promoting better food for us and the environment – and she’s also out to cut waste. Martha’s pots have a message….along with her quirky animated posters, cards and zines. In a specially-designed display at Grand Designs, admire her beautiful trophies and medals, with intricate decoration that celebrate food activists.  And you too can join the protest whoever you are and wherever you go. Simply buy and pin on your jacket, jumper, dress or tee one of Martha’s original handmade stamped clay badges, with a unique and stirring motto that’s a call to action. Martha has a BA in Product Design and Craft from Manchester Metropolitan University www.marthaewiles.myportfolio.com @martha_wiles_art  

14. Peter Nasielski

Here is living furniture, a photo bioreactor harnessing photosynthesis and algae to purify air and grow food. “It’s essentially regenerative,” explains the designer, “exploiting the incredible properties of Spirulina, an edible species of cyanobacteria that capture atmospheric carbon more efficiently than any terrestrial plant.” He calls his piece, somewhat romantically, Proterozoic Portal – “because it is something like a round portal looking back to the Proterozoic Eon, the period of Earth’s History when photosynthetic cyanobacteria ruled the world, oxygenated our atmosphere, and enabled the development of multicellular life.” He also talks about the Symbiocene – “the next chapter in Earth’s history when human society becomes fully integrated with physical and living systems at all scales.” Peter has an MA in Design from Central Saint Martins UAL. @peterjames.design  

15. Preethi Jyakumar

Preethi and her co-director Dhruv Shah are a designer-engineer duo with backgrounds in architecture, instrument and controls engineering who recently graduated together with an MA in Industrial Design. They have invented Anzen Walls, a radical space-saving low-energy heating and ventilation system, which has a super-slim panel concealed within a wall. This functions as a solid state exhaust heat pump, enabling the system to deliver controllable purified air and heating through a sleek vent. (You can also see Dhruv’s Mycelium Housing project in our Green Grads focus on biodesign).    

16. Rosy Napper

Rosy has invented ReCinder, a new material which is 100% recycled from discarded broken ceramics and waste ash diverted from landfill. This is a greener, waste-based alternative to industrially-processed clay. Robust and translucent, ReCinder comes in tiles of various sizes for walls, or soldered together into lighting and furniture, handmade by Rosy in her Woolwich studio and available to commission.  ReCinder only requires one firing and is self-glazing, eliminating conventional mined ingredients. Rosy is also making ReCinder tableware for The Home of Sustainable Things in Islington, N1 (www.thehost.store). Rosy has a BA in Ceramic Design from Central Saint Martins, UAL. @rosynapper_studio www.rosynapper  

17. Samuel McBride

Sam has cut and seasoned local coppice hazel, finding ways to use this irregular timber, and preserve its bark. “I wanted not only to use a very sustainable, affordable British wood, but to bring more nature into our homes and reconnect us to the raw origins of our materials.” Now comes the Arwen storm chair, crafted from beech, Scottish elm and wild service (and inspired by Storm Arwen of 2021). Sam explains: “We are getting more and more severe storms in the UK, due to rapid climate change. Trees come down in large numbers, and it’s difficult to get them all planked before they rot and release the carbon they have sequestered during their lifetime.” Accordingly he has designed a simple seasoned chair frame to take any suitable timber that’s come down in storm. Rather than glue, it carefully-positioned adjustable wooden fixings that allow un-seasoned timber to move and rest over time. “A choice of timbers that work in harmony with each other can commemorate trees lost.” Sam has a BA Product and Furniture Design, Kingston University. @s_a.mcbride  

18. Sara Howard  

Ceramics can be durable and last generations, but are typically made from finite natural resources, the extraction of which may damage the environment and communities. Circular Ceramics was Sara’s graduate project proposing the use of waste for making ceramics, as explained in a self-published book, available now in a second edition. Sara is a Green Grad who has been particularly successful in implementing her sustainability ideals and concepts. She won our first Green Grads Earth Award in 2021, has now upscaled Circular Ceramics during a residency with global brand Kevala Ceramics in Bali. The result is elegant handmade tableware made from Bali’s waste, such as glass from rivers; marble and granite factory slurries; and clay/glaze residues from water treatment systems. Circular Ceramics tableware is now selling in Indonesia and can be ordered wholesale in the UK. Explore the ecological and social issues surrounding the ceramics industry and proposed solutions in the Circular Ceramics book. Sara’s methods are open-source released under the creative commons license ShareAlike. Sara has a BA in Ceramics Design from Central Saint Martins, UAL. @sara__howard http://www.sarahowardstudio.com www.kevalaceramics.com  

19. Sean McCarthy

Sean has developed an attractive, durable, mouldable material from UK-sourced organic waste streams which can be made into truly biodegradable objects. Now he is optimising his material to increase production, expanding what can be moulded from it – and seeking funding. Sean is committed to his manifesto for The Green Industrial Revolution. Principles include: “Change the common perception that sustainable solutions result in loss of quality.” “Create sustainable objects at industrial and local scale.” And “Utilise 100% naturally degradable and renewable waste, ultimately to avoid extraction of resources.” Sean won the Young Innovators Award 2020/2021 from Innovate UK and the 2023 Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation Award. “I’m experienced in industrial and community design and believe industrial ecology practices and open-source tools can bring much-needed sustainability to everyday life.” Sean has an MA from the Royal College of Art.  

20. Simon Redstone

Simon is a well-established and very popular Green Grads from 2021 who will be visiting to demonstrate his wonderful willow-weaving skills and sell his baskets, lampshades, furniture and woven animals – and possibly make you something on the spot! Simon has extensive experience of willow and coppiced wood – perfect examples of beautiful, natural sustainable materials. He comes from a family of willow growers and basket makers and has a new sophisticated take on willow weaving expressed in his beautiful contemporary lights and chairs. “I want to integrate my craft into contemporary design and yes I am pushing it in new directions.” Willow growing and harvesting is low carbon and can make use of land unsuitable for anything else such as flood plains. Simon has a BA as a 3D Designer Maker from Staffordshire University. http://www.redstonewillows.co.uk     21.Simon Roberts Simon is a practising Product Design teacher who completed his MA in his spare time. He devised StickBrick as a classroom exercise for design and technology students to raise awareness of waste and sustainability. He collected around 20,000 chopsticks from his local Hammersmith branch of Wagamama, which were cleaned, sterilised and engineered into stable uniform blocks – strong enough for even a small table, which took 10,000 chopsticks. Says Simon: “Such projects can link schools with communities, and foster craft-based learning.” And – beyond the classroom – there are wider and important implications for the creative use of waste. Simon also offers a repair/restoration service for cricket bats. Simon has an MA in Product & Furniture Design, Kingston School of Art. @sr_makes http://www.srmakes.co.uk    

22. Sri Hollema 

Green Grad Sri Hollema’s timely invention is Mat Zero, a clever heating mat that’s placed directly on the ground. Here, working off a rechargeable battery (or hub) powered by solar panels, it gives safe and sustainable heating for refugees, disaster relief and informal settlements at minimal cost. Currently –  and tragically in far too many cases –  the need for such a device is highlighted nightly on our TV screens, as war and uprisings  drive thousands from their homes all over the globe. Mat Zero is particularly beneficial for children, the elderly and the sick. Just one of 15 out of 329 applications, Mat Zero has won a share of the Energy Catalyst Grant Early Stage from Innovate UK. In total, £40 million has been awarded to innovators delivering clean energy in Africa, Asia, and the Indo-Pacific. Helping Sri develop her project has been Dr Alan James, a high-profile energy consultant and ace entrepreneur, who first came across Sri at a Green Grad show in Manchester. He’s now part of an impressive team of industry experts bringing Mat Zero to market. Exposing GREEN GRADS in such a way to industry contacts through dynamic shows, social media and an ever-expanding website with attendant publicity is a crucial part of Green Grads. http://www.matzero.com  @matzeroltd    

23. Trixi Marx

Trixi has created the alluring “living signage” of our central Biodesign feature, using clay and local plants such as moss. Indeed, it is biophilic design which underpins all of Trixi’s work. This is the idea that all humans seek and receive beneficial contact with nature. “Accordingly, architecture and interior design can mimic nature through colours, shape, light or smell.” Biophilic design, says Trixi, can foster good mental health, increase productivity and reduce stress. “And I have invented biophilic graphic design.”  Examples are Trixi’s Growable Graphics  and Living Letters. “Yes, we can grow our graphics instead of printing them,” says Trixi. “Biophilic graphic design reconnects humans with nature. It can enhance urban biodiversity, clean our air and generates no waste.”  Trixi is seeking opportunities to leverage her expertise in sustainable design –  “I am totally committed to making a positive impact in this field.” She has an MA in Graphic Design from Middlesex University. www.sugarstudio.uk @sugar_._studio  

24. Will Eliot

“Mealworms ate my table,” says Will Eliot, somewhat obliquely. But it’s true, though a bit involved. Mealworms host a unique bacteria that is able to digest polystyrene. Accordingly, Will injected sugar trails through a polystyrene  block to map out the table’s shape. Attracted by the sugar, the mealworms created extra tunnels, but adding an unplanned element to the design. The tunnels were then cast, scanned, and then manipulated on the computer into their distinctive “sliced” shape. Finally they were 3D printed. “Why limit collaboration to humans alone?” Will observes.  “We are woven into a complex ecosystem that over time we’ve dominated and exploited. But we could join forces with nature, an intelligence forged over millions of years of evolution. A new concept of interspecies design could yield fresh concepts and unlock capacities humans alone cannot achieve.”  Recently, Will set up the Biocrafting Studio and has secured Arts Council funding. “I want to foster collaborative experiments with nature – and to encourage making and craft, a hands-on approach.”  

25. William Harris

William is an accomplished glass artist, having graduated from the California College of the Arts with a five year BFA in Glassmaking. He combs London for empty bottles, finding them on the street, in rubbish bins, or at his local pubs and restaurants. Painstakingly, he builds fabulous flowers from this waste, cutting, shaping and painting elements laboriously one at a time. These are assembled into breathtaking chandeliers, with arms of 3D printed waste. William, scouted by Trendease International at the Green Grads’ show last September, is making two glorious chandeliers for Creatives Wings’ array of new talent at Kingsgate Castle in Kent. He has an MA in Design Products from the Royal College of Art (RCA). @invisibleinque2485       For further information or interviews with the founder Barbara Chandler, please contact Sarah Millar, Sister London, 020 7 287 9601     For further information on Grand Design Live contact: Zoe Tang [email protected] / Josh Habib [email protected]