Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Gathering Lamp is not your typical design-led lamp. The three highly textural tiles that encase this geometric table light are made using bioconcrete, from American manufacturer Biomason. This bioconcrete is produced without traditional cement, the component that makes concrete so carbon-intensive. It instead relies on a bacterial microbe that produces calcium carbonate, which binds together the granite aggregate similarly to how seashells are made. The result is a material with a 95 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with typical concrete. “The microbes do all the hard work,” says Natsai Audrey Chieza, one of the lamp’s creators. “How intelligent and elegant is that as a solution?”Chieza is this year’s winner of the Design Innovation Medal, an award bestowed by the London Design Festival to champion game-changing use of design in entrepreneurship. The medal, which will be presented in a ceremony on September 16, marks just a year since Chieza became the founder and chief executive of Normal Phenomena of Life, a consumer lifestyle brand specialising in products that harness the power of biotechnology.Every item on NPOL, which was launched with the support of biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, is produced with the help of living micro-organisms such as fungi, algae and bacteria. This means they don’t just use natural materials; they also take advantage of biological processes to create alternatives to plastics, petrochemicals and other pollutants. “We’re trying to divest from fossil fuel-based materials, which means we need new ones,” says Chieza. “It’s not just about replacing them with eco-friendly versions; these [biotech] materials are often higher performing.”The retail platform is the latest step in Chieza’s long-term plan to catalyse a global design industry shift towards a self-sustaining bioeconomy. By this, she means a world where buildings, objects and energy can be produced without extracting non-renewable natural resources. Following the principles of biophilia, it’s a place where we live in symbiosis with the natural world. “We’re talking about engineering lifeforms to have specific functionality,” she says. “Can we meld these technologies with design in a way that brings us closer to being a more biophilic species?”If you can connect innovation wholesale, you can build a truly sustainable and ethical supply chainChieza is not a scientist. She trained in architecture before becoming fascinated by biotechnology. This led her to study for an MA in material futures at Central Saint Martins, before founding Faber Futures in 2018, a London-based research laboratory exploring ways of bridging the gap between discoveries scientists were making in the lab and what manufacturers were producing. She has worked with partners including Adidas, the World Economic Forum and museums such as the Cooper Hewitt and Pompidou to offer solutions to sustainability challenges.One of the lab’s ongoing projects, which grew out of Chieza’s MA thesis, shows how a pigment produced by a bacteria found in soil can be used to dye textiles. While most natural dyes fade with washing, Faber Futures worked with synthetic biology professor John Ward and his team at University College London’s Department of Biochemical Engineering to develop microbial dyes that are colourfast without the addition of toxic chemicals. According to Chieza, these require about a tenth of the water to produce compared with conventional dyes — textile dyeing and finishing is responsible for an estimated 20 per cent of global water pollution.This technology provided the starting point for NPOL’s first product. The Exploring Jacket is a silk smock featuring tie-dye-esque patterns in shades of blue, red and pink. Each garment is unique, thanks to the markings made by the microbes grown on the textile’s surface. The design doesn’t just demonstrate the technology; it shows it’s possible to apply it on a commercial scale. “That’s where the gold is, right?” says Chieza. “If you can connect innovation wholesale, you can build a truly sustainable and ethical supply chain.”Faber Futures developed several of the products available from NPOL. These include the Gathering Lamp, designed with London studio Mitre & Mondays, and a graphic print created with algae-based ink. The retail platform also offers offerings from other biodesign innovators, such as Herbar’s fungi-based skincare. More boundary-pushing designs are in the works, including a speaker made from mycelium, the vegetative part of a fungus.“Nature is so freakish; that’s how we have the biodiversity that we have on this planet,” she says. “Animals aren’t walking around looking like boxes, yet these are parameters we currently have around industrial design. We’re looking forward to something more unexpected and exciting.”Find out about our latest stories first — follow @FTProperty on Twitter or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
