Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos by Antonia Fedder

Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos by Antonia Fedder is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award de Ferro in Deseño de Produtos Sustentables, Proxectos e Deseño Verde Competition Category.

FerroProduto Sustentable· 2021

Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos

by Antonia Fedder

Client: Fungi Narratives

A' Design Award de Ferro Winner in Produto Sustentable Category

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Verified Award Winner

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The Design

About Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos

Fungi Narratives é un proxecto de investigación en materiais e deseño baseado nos fungos como material orgánico. O proxecto explora as propiedades de Fomes fomentarius e Fomitopsis betulina combinadas con bioplásticos compostables feitos a partir de glicerina vexetal, agar agar e auga. Os resultados inclúen accesorios de coiro de amadou como unha máscara facial, bordados, pezas de moda reutilizadas e unha colección de follas semellantes ao papel feitas unicamente con fungos e auga. O obxectivo é empregar recursos naturais abundantes para crear materiais cun impacto positivo no deseño sostible.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Ferro

Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos gañou o A' Design Award de Ferro, un recoñecemento prestixioso outorgado a bos deseños que cumpren os requisitos profesionais e industriais esperados de creacións ben deseñadas. Os gañadores Ferro demostran a gran habilidade, a alta especialización, a comprensión experta e a capacidade creativa dos seus creadores. Espérase que Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos sexa unha creación moi apreciada, admirada e querida que é práctica e innovadora. Este deseño gañador do A' Design Award de Ferro integra as mellores prácticas do sector e ten características técnicas competentes ligadas ao saber facer e ao talento. Fungi Narratives Material Baseado en Fungos é respectado pola súa minuciosidade e está deseñado para proporcionar melloras na calidade de vida que axudan a facer do mundo un lugar mellor.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Fungi Narratives is a material and design project focusing on experimenting with fungi as an organic material, exploring the relationship of fungi properties combined with bioplastics. Findings and designs include amadou „leather“ accessories such as a face mask, embroidery, up-cycled fashion pieces and various paper-like materials based on fungi. The projects purpose is using abundant resources from nature to create materials with a possible positive sustainable impact on the future of design.
Dimensions & Packaging: All designs/products come in various shapes and sizes.The amadou face mask is 20cm in length and 11cm in width, made from the inner section „amadou“ of comes fomentarius fungus, with the straps made of wool. The paper collection comes in 25 different qualities, all made from both fomes fomentarius and Fomitopsis betulina fungus with an addition of water. They come in different sizes, the smallest being 13cm length 11cm width, the largest being 23cm length 18cm width.
Tags: fungi, sustainable design, material, sustainability, bioplastic, biodegradable
Production Technology: Fomes Fomentarius and Fomitopsis Betulina, Bioplastic. The bioplastic is compostable, we made it using plant based glycerin, agar agar and water. For paper making we only used fungi and water. For the up-cycled fashion we used techniques such as embroidery, knitting, beading and creating a filament for all elements. Furthermore editorial design of the book, letter pressing and hand binding the book. Film and Photography as well as post production of the material. Technical use: Adobe Programs.
Design Challenge: From the beginning our approach was not to interfere with the natural source and learn from it, letting it guide us through the process. The biopolymers we found were an ideal medium for complimenting the fungi. Working with natural materials that will eventually degrade presented many challenges. It required patience and a lot of time as the materials could not be forced. Understanding under which circumstances the biopolymers succeeded with the fungi and when they were incompatible was key.
Research: Fungi Narratives is an experimental material research project. The results are extracted fungi materials and biodegradable biopolymers used in implementations for fashion design techniques such as up-cycling and embroidery, accessory design and paper production. Research about the materials was conducted through the experiments and internet resources. Most interesting was the use of amadou inside the fungus that could be used as organic leather with limited negative environmental impact.
Inspiration: A walk in nature inspired working with fungi, our research showed a possibility to extract Fomes Fomentarius from nature without negatively impacting the ecosystem, as well as the potential of growing them artificially. We conducted over 100 experiments studying the fungi and combining them with bioplastics. The duality between the man-made and the natural was our main motivation driving the experiments, which can have a positive impact on the fields of sustainable product and fashion design.
Project Duration: The project started in November 2019 and ended in September 2020. All team members are students of the Design School Kolding (Denmark) MA Program "Design for Planet“, with backgrounds in communication and fashion design. The project was started as part of a 5 week material research course in the program and then developed further for presentation by the team in September 2020. The project will be exhibited at the Dutch Design Week 2020 in Eindhoven as part of the exhibition „Materialized“.
Operation Flow: Fomes fomentarius is found to have various properties, including medical ones. Amadou can have impact in the future of sustainable alternatives to leather. The project included harvesting the fungi, dissecting and experimenting in different directions. Adding biopolymers increased the possibilities of use for fungi and let us control the flexibility of the materials. User research showed curiosity and positive feedback upon look, surface feel,natural smell and wearability of the fungi material.
Patents: Copyrights belong to Antonia Fedder, Marianne Hansen, Sofia Fiorentino Sarrate and Mads Vindelev Jørgensen, 2020.
Team Members: Antonia Fedder
Sofia Fiorentino
Marianne Hansen
Image Credits: Image #1: Photographer Antonia Fedder, Stylists Sofia Fiorentino and Marianne Hansen, 2020.
Image #2: Photographer Antonia Fedder, 2020.
Image #3: Photographer Antonia Fedder, Styling Sofia Fiorentino and Marianne Hansen, 2020.
Image #4: Photographer Antonia Fedder,2020
Image #5: Photographer Antonia Fedder, 2020.