Another design studio experimenting with this unique material hails from Indonesia, producing modular mycelium bricks, decorative lights, and small furnishings under Mycotech Lab.

The signature Legowo blocks are crafted from a mycelium composite and conveniently interlock, allowing easy and personalised assembly possibilities with structural integrity as well as natural insulation properties.

Other designs by Mycotech Lab include the Mycolight, a lamp that is not only appropriately mushroom-shaped but also “grown” using mushrooms, and the stackable, modular Shrum stool, a remarkably sturdy seat crafted from agroforestry waste bonded by mycelium.

As the designers point out, the stool can withstand a load of up to 600kg despite weighing only 3kg, making it highly suitable for modern living needs.

Turning orange peel into useable furnishings and décor pieces is no small feat, yet the people behind the circularity-focused Caracara Collective in Finland have mastered this singular art. Inspired by the abundance of the natural, inherently sustainable materials around them, the designers created a series of lampshades made of orange peel, as well as pine needles from discarded Christmas trees.

As the collective puts it: “It takes around 20 squeezed oranges to create one lampshade. In other words, each lampshade is the by-product of someone drinking two litres of orange juice.”

In a different take on this extraordinary raw material, another collection of its orange-peel lampshades is titled Seg, so named after the practice of passing around segments of a Mandarin orange.

Beyond these lampshades, the Helsinki-based designers have also produced bespoke wall tiles using the same orange peel, which they state can be combined into block and sheet materials and used as shelves and tabletops. The tiles are available in a triangular, modular configuration, or as playful llama-inspired ones that double as coasters.

Another collective experimenting with food waste is Peelsphere, based in the bustling city of Berlin. The founding team of designers, engineers and entrepreneurs approaches the future of material sustainability by mixing and grinding organic waste into fine pieces, which are further blended with a bio-binder to form sheets and a series of design products.

One of its collections, Orism, consists of locally sourced banana and orange peels, while the Composite range makes the most of organic cotton.

Read more: The sustainable design philosophy behind Mario Cucinella’s groundbreaking architecture

In our very own city, on the other hand, Singaporean design studio Panelogue has created the Organoid range of surface panels, individually crafted in the Australian Alps.

A textural and visual feast, these biophilic panels incorporate everything from alpine hay to flower petals, leaves, rose buds, coffee grounds, moss, and other natural treasures.

From the depths of the ocean into the hearts of our homes—that’s the soul of award-winning Welsh design studio Tŷ Syml. Based in Pembrokeshire, the experimental practice plays with a unique combination of seaweed and mycelium to craft lampshades and acoustic wall panels with a low environmental impact.

Algâu, a collection of seaweed and waste-paper lampshades, follows the studio’s research into applying local seaweed to product design, the organic shape of the light cast directly from early prototyping within sand. The texture of the lampshades resembles cork, with a tactile finish that carries a natural warmth and the subtle scent of the sea.

Discarded oyster shells are similarly repurposed on the island of Cyprus, transformed by Markos Design into Ostra, a ceramic-like biomaterial.

As the designer behind the project shares, this approach aims to modify the island’s oyster supply chain, moving closer to a circular economy by working with waste oyster shells from local restaurants as a sustainable material and preventing their fate in landfills.

Ostra is worked into statement lamp designs, naturally hardwearing thanks to the oysters’ high concentration of calcium carbonate, which also lends cement and concrete considerable strength.

Hoping to make the most of contaminated clay soil and sludge is Claybens, an innovative startup in the Netherlands. This base material is turned into clean building bricks, a process currently being developed alongside research institutes, municipalities, and relevant firms.

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Another ground-up design and research collective is tackling industrial waste in Palestine, turning it into new, more sustainable materials and beautiful objects. Especially interested in waste from the highly polluting stone and marble industry, Sakeb rescues waste destined for agricultural land and sewage networks, which ends up disrupting vital water filtration and contaminating the country’s soil.

Limestone slurry, marble chunks, sawdust and wood chips are just some of the components the designers have transformed into alternative products since 2019, playing with natural drying processes and organic shapes. The monolithic Kabes Stool, crafted from leftover wood, stone dust and natural binders, is one highlight of the collection.

In the United Kingdom, Foresso turns sawdust and waste wood from felled trees into beautiful things. The eponymous Foresso, a range of terrazzo surfaces made using locally sourced wood, is perhaps the company’s most intriguing creation, produced using solar energy and with base materials that travel an average distance of only around 70km.

The surfaces incorporate a lively speckle of wood dust, are hand-finished in Birmingham, and can be comfortably used as tables and worktops. For a more minimalist aesthetic, Foresso’s No-Chip surfaces take on a more modern look, crafted from sanding dust.

A different kind of recycling is undertaken by designer Alessandra Tuseo in Italy. Tuseo’s research looks at dog fur as a potential insulating material, inspired by the bi-annual moulting that dogs naturally experience with the change of seasons, shedding their undercoat in favour of more weather-appropriate fur.

Making use of the discarded fur is thus entirely cruelty-free, and would additionally assist grooming centres, dog owners and breeders with disposal. Still underway, this quirky project has been lovingly titled Wolfwall.

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