Casal d'Estiu - De la molécula al objeto
During these months of July and August we celebrate the 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.
We had the pleasure to host Cristina Noguer & Laura Freixas 2-days workshop
‘De la molécula al objeto’ in July 15 & 16 2020.
Cristina Noguer
Independent designer and researcher. Understanding design as a socio-cultural gear, from where to project ecologically sustainable futures, through innovation, matter and processes.
www.cristinanoguer.com
Laura Freixas
Researcher with a focus on emerging materials and the circular economy, exploring the intersection of design, biology, technology, community and self-sufficiency.
organic matters
We like to ask both of them a couple of questions regarding their passion for materials, their influences and current projects.
How do you know each other? Is this your first collaboration?
Cristina Noguer (C) : We worked together a couple of years ago, I feel we have the same view on materials, innovation and the social condition of design.
Laura Freixas (L) : During the quarantine Cris proposed to me to do this workshop with her and I accepted with great enthusiasm.
“You know that typical sentence: “this is like this because it always have been that way”, the thing is that the ”always” is actually a very short timeframe, so it’s interesting and challenging to investigate on what things were made and what they can be made of. ”
How would you describe your passion for materials?
And is there any particular moment in your life that led you to what are you doing today?
L : Materials are the starting point of decisions made in a project and can be more or less healthy for us and the planet. These decisions have implications for society and territory in the material extraction, transformation processes, packaging, transport, use of the material or product, and finally, its end of life. I personally think it is very important to understand the impact of materials and see when a product needs to be reused, recycled or composted from a circular point of view. A good selection of materials and processes can be a regenerative element within a community.
C : A critical eye on materials challenges the idea we have of things. You know that typical sentence: "this is like this because it always have been that way", the thing is that the "always" is actually a very short timeframe, so it’s interesting and challenging to investigate on what things were made and what they can be made of. The transformation of materials usually takes a lot of implications; it has a lot of consequences. So it’s important to look at the way we make things with a critical and pro-positive eye at the same time.
“We are not experts in pine materials but we can understand and see the potential of its by-products.”
Cristina, the perfume industry and perfume creation is for many of us unfamiliar.
How do you give to the workshop participants an entry to this world?
C : I’m not interested in perfume, either in the perfumery industry. I'm interested in challenging myself and others. In this case challenging the perception of the inmaterial of the olfactory sense. So I like to play with smells and encourage others to do so. I feel it 's a powerful field with not much critical thinking. In my work I use smells and light as the two big materials, or in materials that shape the way we feel in a very strong way.
You work and experiment with materials in a very general sense, how is that?
C : I like experimenting with materials because it is the way to go from a theory to a test. While experimenting you discover new things, new ideas and new ways. Or sometimes you remember old ways of doing. I like traditional processes and materials at the same time that I feel mesmerized by the heavy industry. What moves me the most is to prove that things can be done differently, and in this change of doing we improve the social and ecological condition of our society and the planet we live in.
Laura, what is hidden behind @_organicmatters? What kind of applications are you working on?
L : Organic Matters is an initiative to rethink the future and value of regenerative economy, organic matter and local production. The initiative has different lines of research: a material platform to connect local producers with material designers and industries, a consulting service and a space to collaborate, develop and implement compostable applications that return nutrients back to Earth. The project explores the intersection between design, biology, chemistry, technology, material science, community and self-sufficiency. And from there, three questions arise:
- What if we use organic surplus from local producers and transform it into regenerative applications for climate-resilient economies and societies?
- Is it possible to program the lifespan of a material based on its use and know what nutrients it brings to the soil when it is composted?
- What is the minimum infrastructure to generate a local and regenerative product?Through the platform it is possible to: map the surplus organic matter from local producers, collaborate with other material designers and generate compostable applications using artisanal and digital manufacturing techniques, and finally, seek investment to research, produce and disseminate regenerative materials and low environmental impact applications.
Would you describe your workshop as an intuitive experiment based on your experience? And which part contains 'experiment' and which 'intuitive'?
L : "De la Molécula al Objeto" is an intuitive experiment based on our material and processes experience. We are not experts in pine materials but we can understand and see the potential of its by-products. We know pine resin is an impermeable material and it's an interesting property to contain liquids. On the other hand, we know that cellulose is an absorbent biopolymer that generates fibers and this property is perfect to absorb the smell of essential oils. Also, Cris knows how to extract the smell of materials with a traditional Alambique to obtain hydrolates and essential oils. So we decided to combine these three elements and generate a natural home diffuser with pine by-products: an impermeable container made with pine resin, an absorbent foam made with cellulose and an essential oil distilled from pine bark and needles.
C : I tend to listen to my intuition a lot, this workshop was designed to prove that biomaterials and waste can be a real source to create a product. Of course this was a very experimental stage of the project but it definitely showed that the materials and processes used have the potential to become building materials.