Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料 by Antonia Fedder

Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料 by Antonia Fedder is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 鐵獎 in 可持續產品設計 Competition Category.

鐵可持續產品· 2021

Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料

by Antonia Fedder

Client: Fungi Narratives

A' Design Award 鐵獎 Winner in 可持續產品 Category

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Colors

The Design

About Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料

《真菌敘事》係一個以真菌作為有機材料嘅材料與設計研究項目。呢個項目探索咗馬勃菌（Fomes fomentarius）同樺剝管菌（Fomitopsis betulina）嘅特性，並將其與由植物性甘油、洋菜同水製成嘅可堆肥生物塑膠相結合。研究成果包括用真菌皮革（amadou leather）製成嘅配飾，例如口罩、刺繡作品、升級再造嘅時裝單品，以及一系列純粹由真菌同水製成、質感似紙張嘅薄片。呢個項目嘅目標係運用豐富嘅天然資源，創造出對可持續設計有正面影響嘅材料。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 鐵獎

Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料是 A' Design Award 鐵獎得主，這是授予滿足人們對設計精良的創作所期待的專業與工業要求的優良設計的聲望認可。鐵獎得主展現出其創作者的高超技藝、高度專業化、專家級的理解力和創造能力。預計Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料將成為一件備受推崇、令人欽佩且被珍愛的創作，既實用又創新。這件贏得 A' Design Award 鐵獎的設計整合了行業最佳實踐，並擁有與專業知識和才華相結合的稱職技術特性。Fungi Narratives 真菌基材料因其嚴謹而受到尊重，旨在提供有助於讓世界變得更美好的生活品質改善。

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.