Materia Futura is a sensory-led design research project exploring the future of sustainable materials through the fusion of nature, technology, and craft. It responds to a key tension in biodesign: the gap between the vibrant, immersive aesthetics of digital culture and the often-muted look of biomaterials.

Embracing bold colors, iridescent effects, and experimental forms, the project challenges the notion that sustainability must appear raw or minimal. Materia Futura reveals nature’s inherent vibrancy and reimagines it in extended reality, translating physical bioplastics into tactile digital experiences.

by Alessia Pasquini & Beatriz Sandini

Explore the Archive

IMAGINING FUTURES

Materia Futura was born out of an urgent need to challenge the status quo of sustainable material aesthetics. While the field of biodesign continues to innovate in material composition, it often overlooks the emotional and visual dimensions that drive human connection. This project asks:

What if sustainability didn’t have to look raw, neutral, or earthy - but could shimmer, glow, and seduce the senses?

Led by designers Alessia Pasquini and Beatriz Sandini, the project combines deep expertise in fashion, material research, and textile innovation. Both are alumnae of Fabricademy, an international program exploring the intersection of biology, technology, and craft. Their complementary skills, ranging from raw material development and co-creation tools to digital fabrication and visual storytelling, form the backbone of the project.

To push the boundaries of how biomaterials can look, feel, and be experienced, the team embraces a bold experimental approach, exploring an expanded palette of forms, finishes, and textures. From iridescent surfaces to moire effects and digital material translations in augmented reality, Materia Futura challenges conventional expectations of sustainable design.

The project also includes a partnership with Paulina Martina, a specialist in AR/VR fashion and XR design, to further develop its digital dimension. Her expertise enables the transformation of tactile biomaterials into immersive virtual experiences, seamlessly bridging the physical and digital realms.

The project is proudly supported by the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, through their Experimentation Grant scheme, recognizing its potential to redefine standards in circular design and digital materiality.

Together, we invite you to experience the first outcomes of Materia Futura - a vision of biomaterials that are not only sustainable, but also aesthetically radical, emotionally resonant, and digitally alive.

Materia Futura teaser

EXPLORING MATERIALS

At the heart of Materia Futura is a hands-on, iterative process of material experimentation driven by curiosity, aesthetic inquiry, and a desire to move beyond conventional expectations of sustainable design. Guided by circular and regenerative principles, we worked with natural biopolymers such as agar, alginate, and gelatin, selected for their home compostability, non-toxicity, and local availability.

Our aesthetic approach celebrates color and light - crafting materials that shimmer, glow, and captivate through bold color, intricate form, and dynamic surface interaction. Each experiment becomes a study in visual pleasure, designed to evoke curiosity and stimulate the senses.

After rounds of trial and refinement, we focused on developing holographic and metallic finishes through mechanical and optical methods - avoiding synthetic additives. We shaped bioplastics into laser-cut sequins in a variety of colors and transparencies, and created engraved moiré patterns by layering laser-engraved lines and curves to generate shifting, illusion-like effects.

These explorations aim to fuse the visual richness of high-tech aesthetics with the biodegradability of low-impact materials, revealing how surface treatments and shaping methods can emotionally and sensorially elevate sustainable design.

Moire Effect

Vibrant Colors and Holographic Effect

BioSequins

An Archive of

New Bio-Based Materials

DITGITAL MATERIALITY

In Materia Futura, the exploration of sustainable materials extends beyond the physical realm into the world of extended reality. By translating biomaterial samples into digital formats, the project investigates how tactility, color, and surface qualities can be preserved and reimagined within virtual environments.

In collaboration with Paulina Martina, we are developing immersive, non-linear experiences that allow users to engage with the materials in new ways. The focus lies primarily on Augmented Reality (AR) filters, accessible via mobile devices, enabling users to project and interact with virtual biomaterials in their own surroundings.

These experiments challenge the notion that biomaterials are confined to craft-based applications. Instead, they position them within a broader context of digital innovation, speculative design, and sensory storytelling. In this way, the digital layer functions not only as a tool for documentation and visualization, but also as a creative medium, expanding how sustainable materials can be designed, experienced, and shared.