10 innovative and sustainable materials used in design

The year 2024 was marked by the speed and intensity of climate change and this fact boosted a lot of research that was already taking place, such as the creation of more sustainable production processes and materials. That's why we've selected some innovative initiatives here that offer promising solutions for product design and construction. For many designers and engineers experimenting with new materials, the aim is to replace high-carbon-emitting raw materials as quickly as possible. An example of this is concrete, which contributes up to 8% of carbon emissions globally. Check out the 10 innovative materials that have emerged in the last year!

1. From construction to décor

The Remli lamp is made from the Remains material by We+, which is a composite made from a mixture of urban waste that the studio describes as "difficult to recycle". Collected from construction sites around Tokyo, Japan, the waste is ground into powder and mixed with molten glass, which acts as a binder to create a material with a finish similar to concrete.

2. Good mix

Created by Brazilian-Danish couple Victor and Søren, Assimply is an experimental design studio whose DNA is a blend of Scandinavian minimalism and Brazilian bossa. Founded in 2021, the studio looks to the future with a focus on producing objects, furniture and architecture made through the reuse of materials. Traditional techniques such as Italian terrazzo are combined with contemporary techniques, such as the Nu collection. Furniture and objects display simple lines, whose purpose is to highlight the contrast and interaction between reused elements, such as ceramics, beige bahia marble, glass and aluminum - all from recycled or discarded sources.

3. Recyclable gadgets

This is the brainchild of Pentaform, a startup from technology focused on making gadgets with a type of plastic that dissolves in water, leaving only the electronic components that are easy to recycle. The product, which can be a computer or remote control, receives a thin waterproof layer on the outside to protect it from moisture, but when the casing is opened and everything is submerged in water, it dissolves completely in six to eight hours. The idea is that the mixture of plastic and water is poured down the sink or into the toilet so that it can finish decomposing in the sewage system.

4. Mycelium blocks

In Anomalia's MycoMuseum, the mycelium was used as furniture and fabric in a wall system made from the structure of the mushroom root. The research platform extracts agricultural waste to grow MycoBlox, which is a series of lightweight, stackable and load-bearing blocks. The pieces are sustainable, capable of reducing carbon emissions and waste in construction, as well as being completely biodegradable.

5. Recycled cement

Among the many research projects for the production of concrete with zero carbon emissions to meet construction needs around the world, the most promising is the solution from the University of Cambridge. The method involves the recycling of old cement, collected from demolished buildings, which is heated to reactivate its compounds. The key to the innovation is the way this process is carried out: taking advantage of existing electric furnaces used to recycle steel, where the cement is used to purify the metal. This process addresses the two main sources of high emissions from cement: the chemical reaction when limestone is transformed into new cement and the burning of fuels to power the high-temperature kilns needed for this process.

6. Fabric made from recycled fabric

The textile brand Kvadrat worked with designer Teruhiro Yanagihara to launch its first recycled polyester fabric made from fabric instead of the usual plastic bottles. Called Ame, the new material is an important step by the company towards closing the life cycle of a fabric. Normally, plastic bottles are turned into recycled polyester, while the used polyester is turned into other products - a process known as downcycling because the material loses quality with each round of recycling. So, to create a new fabric from textile waste, Kvadrat turned to chemical recycling. In the method known as depolymerization, the polyester is broken down into its molecular building blocks and then reconstructed to recover the quality of the virgin material.

7. Revamped linoleum

Rethinking something old from a new perspective is also part of the innovation process. And that's what Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma has done, who has reformulated linóleo and created a new visual language for the material with the Flaxwood tiles, designed for manufacturer Dzek. Unlike plastic-based vinyl and PVC, linoleum can be made entirely from renewable and reclaimed materials - such as linseed oil, pine resin, wood dust and chalk - as well as being biodegradable. In the Flaxwood line, all the pigments, coatings and backgrounds that normally disguise its natural composition are removed to reveal a honey tone and natural texture. The aim of this work is to help position linoleum as a material of the future, rather than just a remnant of the 1970s.

8. 3D printing and date stones

The design collective Nawa, from Oman, has created a plastic-free filament for 3D printing using seeds from wasted dates. Called RePit, a pun on the word repeat, the composite material was designed to offer a more sustainable alternative to the thermoplastic filaments traditionally used by 3D printers. The stones are crushed and mixed with natural clay and palm fibers to imitate a traditional water-resistant lime mortar. Nawa has produced a series of decorative tiles with this material, which represents a way of making use of almost one million tons of date stones produced by the global industry each year.

9. Vegetable skin

This version of the Bou, by Danish fashion brand Ganni, is made from a material created by start-up Biofluff, which claims to have developed the world's first vegetable skin. Unlike existing artificial fur, this fuzzy fabric contains no plastics or petrochemicals, according to the manufacturer. Instead, its furry fibers are extracted from plants and agricultural waste using special enzymes that are also derived from plants.

10. Space bricks

How to transport materials from Earth to Moon is absurdly expensive, space agencies are actively exploring possible ways of building structures using lunar soil. The European Space Agency has created its own version of a 3D-printed Lego block, made from meteorite dust, as it explores how to construct buildings in space. The "space bricks" are produced using dust from a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite discovered in 2000 in northwest Africa. This raw material acts as a substitute for lunar regolith - the material that covers the surface of the Moon, which is largely the product of meteorite impacts. The development of the space brick is part of the European agency's contribution to the international Artemis program, which aims not only to take astronauts back to the Moon, but also to establish a lunar base there. [april-veja-tambem]W3siaWQiOjE4NDI4NCwidGl0bGUiOiJFc3QmI3hGQTtkaW8gQ2FtcGFuYSBsYW4mI3hFNzthIHRyYWJhbGhvcyBpbiYjeEU5O2RpdG9zIGVtIG1vc3RyYSBlbSBTJiN4RTM7byBQYXVsbyJ9LHsiaWQiOjE3Nzg0OCwidGl0bGUiOiJNYXRlcmlhaXMgbmF0dXJhaXMgcyYjeEUzO28gZGVzdGFxdWUgbmEgQ0FTQUNPUiAyMDI0OiBjb25maXJhIDEwIGFtYmllbnRlcyEifSx7ImlkIjoxNjc0ODMsInRpdGxlIjoiMTAgdmV6ZXMgZW0gcXVlIG8gY29ndW1lbG8gZm9pIHVzYWRvIGNvbW8gbWF0JiN4RTk7cmlhLXByaW1hIG5vIGRlc2lnbiJ9XQ==[/abril-see-also]