Kelp Collection: 3D print design innovation made from recycled fishing nets

The Swedish design studio Interesting Times Gang launches trendsetting Kelp Collection, which combines 3D printing with recycling

Kelp Collection
Source & Copyright by Interesting Times Gang

Author: Sidney Kadziolka

  • Swedish design studio launches circular Kelp Collection
  • Material innovation: The collection is 3D printed and made from recycled fishing nets
  • The collection is considered a pioneering design innovation for "creative" resource protection

The Swedish design studio Interesting Times Gangoperates at the interface of circular design and experience technology to develop sustainable strategies and aesthetic design for cultural and commercial organizations. This mission takes the creative team beyond the previously defined limits of what is possible and encourages the development of innovative methods. Those that are in line with protecting the planet. The result of this strategy: The Kelp Collection. A collection consisting of 3D printed furniture made from recycled fishing nets. Thus proof of the enormous potential of 3D printing and recycling in the interior design sector.

Source & Copyright by Interesting Times Gang

Kelp Collection: Resource protection through design innovation

The vision for the Kelp Collection developed in response to the ongoing pollution of our oceans. Although human existence is heavily dependent on them and their life forms, far too many fishermen still dispose their nets in the Baltic Sea or surrounding waters. With a result that they continue to cause ecosystem destruction and the death of sea creatures decades later. Most of the known seaweed forests have already been wiped out due to these unsustainable fishing practices and rising sea temperatures.

So what if these nets didn't end up in the sea in the first place? If they became a valuable resource? If there were a design innovation that would help protect our oceans?

Exactly these questions led Interesting Times Gang to develop the Kelp Collection. The material innovation that was developed for this combines the recycled fishing nets with wood fibers. In this way, 3D printed designs can be created that remain in the same material ecosystem at the end of their life cycle. This is how you create the circular economy: the interior can be ground up to generate new biomaterials. This can in turn be used to design new objects - whether furniture or new types of lenses with a completely different function - a closed design cycle is created. Sustainable benefit: Kelp binds as much CO2 per hectare as 20 hectares of trees.

Biomimicry: Inspired by & designed for nature

The shapes of the sea vegetation are the inspiration for the Kelp Collection. In the spirit of biomimicry, Interesting Times Gang uses elements of nature to discover innovative ideas for shaping our reality. The result of this approach are wavy lines and organically swinging silhouettes that illustrate the design's reference to nature. The special feature: the shape of the silhouette could only be made possible by the latest advances in 3D printing technology and material development. It represents something extraordinary - something that has never been there before.

Kelp Collection 2

Source & Copyright by Interesting Times Gang

What's next? From niche to mainstream.

The Kelp Collection was originally developed for two-star chefs Niclas Jönsson and Daniel Höglander. The mission: finding interior for their new sushi restaurant, Black Milk Sushi, in Stockholm. Since then, however, this has been particularly true Kelp chair more and more attention, so that the Interesting Times Gang, for example, discussed 2022D printing in design as part of the Design Talks of Design Week 3.

In general, it is precisely the attention that sustainable, circular and innovative design needs. Pioneering design studios like Interesting Times Gang need to raise awareness of their commitments to prove their feasibility and functionality. If others realize this, they will hopefully be inspired to rethink. A rethinking that should and must lead to environmentally friendly practices establishing themselves as mainstream.

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