New Aesthetic for Materials

New Material Aesthetics presents findings from the research projects READY and From Fibre to Form. Both projects investigate whether Material-Driven Design (MDD) can act as a driver of the green transition towards a more sustainable textile industry. READY develops design strategies through experimentation with bio-based and recycled fibres, while the PhD project explores how the inherent colours of discarded textiles form aesthetics in nonwoven materials. Together, the projects contribute new knowledge on material-based design processes and business models. They challenge dominant ideals of perfection, highlighting irregularities and material variations as industrial design resources. Through this shift in perspective, they reconfigure processes, aesthetics, and material flows, proposing strategies that point towards a more sustainable textile future in which local resources, extended product lifespans, and reduced environmental impact are paramount.

Imagining the Future - Through Architecture and Design
What would happen if we dared to visualise a future scenario – not as science fiction, but as tangible, research-based proposals for new ways of living, dwelling and thinking?
The Imagining the Future exhibition presents 29 projects by architects and designers. The projects use current challenges and possibilities as their point of departure: new materials, new ways of dwelling and providing ourselves with shelter, new ways of envisaging community and sustainability.
Each project is an independent narrative, but in the aggregate, they point towards a future where human needs are put on an equal footing with planetary needs. For instance, is it possible for a dwelling to include species other than human beings? And how can technology and design help us envisage a future still unknown to us, but which is fit for the whole planet and its living beings?