Weird Materials – Unusual Matters That Will Shape the Future

A traveling exhibition and online archive sharing possible uses of unusual materials that are able to cope with climate change.

Long Description

Weird materials focuses on uses of unusual materials which are emerging, overlooked or even forgotten. For instance, buildings made of bones, clothing made of seaweed, furniture grown by mushrooms or even bio-plastics made of blood.

A traveling exhibition and an online archive will share unusual materials that are newly developed, are based on waste or renewable resources, or have historical value with the ability to cope with climate change. We will search for solutions where you don’t expect to find them. This means looking at different countries, different times and different cultures.

This project is proposed by Paula Raché and Aart van Bezooijen, two designers who are passionate about materials and sustainability. You might know us from the “It’s Not Easy Being Green” (2011) project where we have been exploring sustainability worldwide which has been published in a book.

We will take a personal approach in speaking with local citizens, creatives and scientists for first-hand information. Through collecting-designing-sharing we transform our discoveries into a visual and tangible format (exhibition, website, photos, videos) to inspire and inform a large audience.

We believe that people are deeply curious beings. Our goal is to turn curiosity into public acceptance by getting in touch with the world of stuff. Giving unusual materials a closer look gets people familiar in dealing with unknown issues and the new reality that climate change will bring us.