International Programme
The Materials Farm - FADfest 2016
Het Nieuwe Instituut cooperates with Materfad, materials center and FADfest, the All Design Festival in Barcelona. Within the context of the festival theme "Food, Sustainable Emergency and Design" three Dutch designers, three Spanish and three international designers participate in the program The Materials Farm - agriculture, food and living organisms: a source for new material.
The Agency develops an international program focused on talent development and internationalization of Dutch professionals in architecture, design and digital culture. Part of this program is the Material innovation, design and sustainability program, which cooperates within a European New Materials network of organisations (universities, museums, connecting centers, material libraries, schools etc). In June 2016, Het Nieuwe Instituut cooperates with Materfad and FADfest in Barcelona. Within the context of the festival theme "Food, Sustainable Emergency and Design" Het Nieuwe Instituut invited three Dutch designers to participate together with three Spanish and three international designers in the program The Materials Farm - agriculture, food and living organisms: a source for new material.
The Materials Farm
The model according to which we extract raw materials and subject them to complex processes to obtain materials has a limited duration. Scarce resources, dependence on oil, and the problem of waste form an outlook where designers, biologists, chemists and other professionals begin to join their knowledge to create a new model around which to build a more responsible industry and market. The first of their efforts is directed to the most primary activity: food. The magnitude of food and agriculture industry provides a natural opportunity for the development of new materials from surplus, by-products and derivative waste from food production.
It also represents a new approach to nature and its biological processes as a model for action: who has designed a more efficient, attractive and sustainable packaging than the skin of an orange? Fungi, bacteria and other living agents are becoming the authors of a new generation of materials. In The Materials Farm we will learn from designers and researchers from here and around the world about their experiences in the development of new materials from agriculture, food and biological processes.
Thursday 9 June the participating designers reflect on The Materials Farm, in which different experiences in the development of new materials from agriculture, food and biological processes will be elaborated. This board of experts also runs an experimental and participatory workshop that takes place on the 11th of June in the framework of FADfest's main event, the General Rehearsal. A gastronomic event that will test the city from the point of view of food sustainability and it assesses its capabilities. At the same time, and from the perspective of materials, the event emulates chefs in order to design own recipes and discover other "materializations" that food offers.
Designers
Achenyo Idachaba, entrepreneur and founder of MitiMeth (Ibadan, Nigeria); Chloé Rutzerveld, designer specialising in food design (Eindhoven, Netherlands); Clara Balmaña, product designer specialising in food (Barcelona, Spain); Mandy den Elzen, visual artist specialising in materials (Breda, Netherlands); Pere Llorach, product engineer and researcher at the ICTA (Barcelona, Spain); Raúl Laurí, product designer, creator of decafé (Alicante, Spain); Renée Boute, graphic and product designer (Utrecht, Netherlands); Stefano Parisi, product designer and researcher at the Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy).
More information about FADfest 2016 and The Materials Farm
International Materials & Design Network
Within the advancing international network of innovation in materials, design and sustainability, a growing number of new collaborative projects is being set up. Examples of international collaborations include working visits by Dutch designers and international activities for the New Material Award. Het Nieuwe Instituut and international partners organize these activities to realize more market expansion in the design field, in so doing contributing to the internationalization of Dutch design practice.