Casal d'Estiu - Introducción a los bioplasticos
This summer we have organised our first Casal d'Estiu with a series of workshops under the concept of Self-Sufficiency. A topic that we will address from different perspectives such as habitat, body, food and objects. Perspectives that are different but interdependent.
Workshop ‘Colectivizando los materiales. Introducción a los bioplasticos’
by Sara González de Ubieta on July 29, 2020.
Sara González de Ubieta
Architect, designer and craftswoman specialized in materials and footwear. Sara studied the possibilities of unconventional materials through research projects. Her projects are based on technique and the creation of objects in the agency of materials as living subjects.
instagram - sara_deubieta
It’s a pleasure to host someone like Sara with her research experiences in this particular field - bioplastics.
Of course we have a couple of question for her!
Can you tell us a little bit more about your background and how you came to bioplastics? Was there any particular 'moment' in your life?
Sara González de Ubieta : I'm an architect and a shoemaker and I'm very interested in how processes, technologies and materials influence the shape and formal appearance of objects. That's why I normally study materials through three paths: searching for materials used in other industries to apply in other fields of creation, changing shape or state of materials to explore new properties and the creation of new materials. Cooking bioplastics will be this last path: I first started about four years ago working on bioplastics with the study of growing cellulose membranes synthesized by bacteria because it looked like leather (a material I was trying to avoid) and it seem to me that it was been used in design as its possible substitute but applying exactly the same way as leather so I wanted to study the properties of it in order to apply it correctly. Then I discovered that bioplastics could also be cooked so I started cooking my own receipts of planted-based bioplastics.
“Waste is a great warehouse of inspiration.”
What fascinates you about creating materials? Do you have a favorite formular? If so why?
Creating materials though cooking is an endless field because if you change a little thing the whole final result will be affected so need to be precise but it is good fun. What I like the most is working on formulas that include a material that comes from waste processes and create something beautiful out of it, because even waste materials have properties. There is no good or bad material, the important thing is how they are applied and to look for their more suitable solutions. Waste is a great warehouse of inspiration.
On what projects are you working currently? Any great discoveries that you could share with us?
Right now I'm studying fibers for a future work I may start in autumn, so just understanding different fibers, how they are treated, different structures of textile. I'm not into an experimentation state yet! It's all a long but interesting path.
To see all this interest of people in bioplastics, what does that mean for you or make you feel like? Is there a new 'trend' to see?
It makes me extremely happy to see how people get hooked by bioplastics! First of all because cooking can be made in groups and this is always richer than doing it on your own, and also because it's another way of seeing life, through matter. It connects you to people, animals, plants and minerals! Cooking materials need observers and listeners, so it's a very empathic process.
“Cooking materials need observers and listeners, so it’s a very empathic process.”
Is it true that there are only a few bio-plastics experts/centren that work on research? Do you share new discoveries between you? How do you collaborate?
Creating a new material can be done at home with a small amount of tools so the experimentation of bioplastics is a very democratic process that everyone can get involved in. But once you get into something you want to characterize correctly and move into a second step you will need to get into a laboratory, so it's not that there are not experts and centres to do this, it's just that it's a second phase, another state.
But yes, there are many people sharing their discoveries on the Internet through many open books and blogs so what I like about bioplastics is that it creates community.