Green Renaissance

Background—Bio-based alternatives to traditional materials have recently been backed by a wave of big-name investors, with Adidas and Hermès incorporating mycelium leather into fashion pieces, and BMW debuting a concept car with natural latex tyres. In the field of Urban Futures, the upcycling of agricultural and organic waste into biomaterials helps not only to face the problem of pollution caused by the exploitation of conventional materials but also the environmental concern of organic waste disposal into landfills—as discussed during Dutch Design Week 2021 by design studio Biobased Creations with their prototype home built from 100 different biomaterials. Contribution—I first conducted design research to understand the drawbacks of contemporary agriculture and future opportunities for agricultural innovation; then designed an innovative future system and a series of discursive artifacts (models and posters) where agricultural and organic waste could be optimised for reuse in architecture and design to improve the sustainability of our cities and form the building blocks of a low-carbon and circular economy. Significance—This work was selected for the National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Design Week 2021 in the form of both an exhibition and a panel conversation. Presented in partnership with Queen Victoria Market, Green Renaissance, the exhibition, was seen by 100s of people from the public; whereas Green Renaissance, the panel conversation, was attended by ~100 people and programmed alongside the Past Futures film program at The Capitol theatre. Following up on this work, I was invited to speak at the Royal Society of the Arts Oceania, the speculative design Primer conference in the USA, and the 2021 Ecological Society of Australia annual conference. In addition, this work allowed me to secure research funding with a top-tier Australian food retailer with the view of transforming organic waste into home-compostable bio-packaging.