Material Madness
Material design project
2019-2020
In the context of raw material scarcity, wasteful handling of already circulating building materials, and what looks like a superabundance of leaves. This project exploring the potential of using garden waste as the organic compound in the making of bio composite material.
Research and material prototyping resulted in two cube shaped material samples made out of maple leaf fiber and biodegradable binders.
Sample 1: to touch it feels sturdy and ridged. Sample 2: feels brittle, in a second attempt doing the same test more bacterial cellulose would be added to the mixture.
These tests were made at home, in an advanced manufacturing environment it would for example be possible to:
- Shred the leaves to an exact desirable size,
- Press the samples even firmer into any possible shape,
- Try more biodegradable binders and apply coating substances.
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