KOMBUTEX FUTURE INTERIORS
A healthy and sustainable interior functions as a living ecosystem in balance. How can we design interiors as ecosystems? Our interiors consist for the most part of an invisible, but very essential ‘mass’: air. As several studies from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) show, the air quality of the built environment is one of today’s crucial challenges, and poor air quality can become a threat to our health. This is especially true for public buildings like schools and offices. In the past years, we conducted extensive research on how to translate systems and reactions from nature into architectural objects that function in symbiosis with the users.
Type
Research
Team
Samira Boon, Irene Petrillo, Anna Sitnikova, Michelle Franke, Emma Pekelharing, Florine Nijntjes, Yona Yfke Adipurnomo, Marit Scheuldermand, Chiel Lubbers
Collaborators
HybridFormsLab by Raoul Frese
Biophysics of Photosynthesis, VU Amsterdam
Waag Society
Supported by
Creative Industries Fund
Completion
2020 - ongoing
Featured at
Podcast de Architect
From this starting point, our technical ‘garden’ of bionic textile installations HORTUS BIONICA improves indoor climate and air quality by mimicking the way plants and flowers move and react. Yet, taking this idea of biomimicry a step further, the use of available micro-ecosystems offers a much greater range of potential. With the research project Living Aero Bacterial Systems (LABS): Future Interiors, we want to make our indoor climate healthier and more sustainable with living textiles developed with microorganisms.
KOMBUTEX
LABS: Future Interiors takes kombucha scoby biofilm as its raw material and conducts research into bacteria grown textiles as 100% biodegradable interior elements and as a substrate for air-purifying plants. During LABS: Future Interiors research process we developed the material KOMBUTEX. The material offers smart opportunities to tackle the challenges of indoor air quality towards a more healthy environment. This kombucha-based material has the power to make our future interiors grow and evolve to become alive, regenerative and interactive spaces. In the long term, KOMBUTEX is a catalyst for sustainable and biodiverse indoor ecosystems.
The first KOMBUTEX results are showcased at the Embassy of Health during the Dutch Design Week 2020, offering a smart and innovative solution to the spatial and social challenges of today and to the theme of Urban Transformations. During this virtual DDW exhibition we will present our pilot interior product: the desk divider KOMBOUquet, which includes different varieties of KOMBUTEX: soft and hard, translucent and blind, 2d and 3d, alive and in symbiosis with other cultures. This ensemble demonstrates the versatility of the novel material to create healthy, living environments that control the airflow and purify the air.
LABS: Living Interiors is a collaboration between Studio Samira Boon and the HybridFormsLab by Raoul Frese / Biophysics of Photosynthesis VU Amsterdam. The project is supported by the Grant Programme Architecture of the Creative Industries Fund NL.
