The old material world is ending. Brittle supply chains. Toxic defaults. Broken logic. As a practice-based design researcher and co-founder of The New Materialist, I transform overlooked biomass (from invasive Alpine species to perfume distillation leftovers) into high-performance, regenerative materials for global leaders like LVMH, Lancôme, and Salomon, Veuve Clicquot, ... I research, advise, and teach to bridge the gap between creative exploration and industrial reality. My work is not about finding substitutes for synthetics; it is about uncovering the inherent, mesmerizing qualities of bio-based materials that old-world material producers can’t even see.
Beyond my work at The New Materialist, I have spent 8 years educating the next generation of designers, leading workshops and supervising graduation projects across 2 major design departments at the KABK: Master Industrial Design and Bachelor Interior Architecture & Furniture Design. My goal is to empower a movement of internal innovators who design from the ground up, not tweak broken systems from the top down.
Nature doesn't do waste. Why should your materials?
My focus:
- Material Discovery: Designing bio-plastics and bio-composites from nature to nature.
- Systemic Transformation: Using mapping and tracing to redesign circular material flows.
- Material Narratives: Defining the aesthetical and emotional values of the next economy.
- Prospective Design: Crafting future scenarios where industry and ecology are no longer separate.