(Material) Safety First
Objectives:
- Design a strategic intervention to catalyse fundamental shifts of material systems that are centred on community and ecosystem health, protecting biodiversity, and celebrating both traditional material practices and innovation.
- Understand the materials and circular economy landscape in the Philippines to develop an intervention that is strategic and place-based
Project Duration: February 2025 – Present
Designed For: Personal master’s thesis research at HSLU (final project)
Role: Student, Master’s in Eco-Social Design
Overview: A proposal for a materials hub in the Philippines that educates about natural materials that are locally available, supports research and development of ecologically safe materials, and links sellers and buyers of materials in the Philippines. The hub is a physical space with a digital counterpart.
*I received the Social Impact Design Award for this project.
Island nations face pervasive material and waste challenges: Certain materials are known for the harm they can cause on a range of species and ecosystems, yet they continue to be made and used. The negative impacts are observed and experienced throughout the Philippine archipelago. A core focus of the hub is to shift material practices in order to make and use materials that are safe, from land to sea.
Shifting policy landscape in the Philippines toward more circular practices and systems: There are policies and national plans that have emerged to address pollution and waste challenges. In the design of the hub, I thought about how the service offerings could align with the policy landscape and support the individuals/companies/institutions who need to comply.
Gaps in the Philippine design scene: The Design Center of the Philippines identified the current lack of material libraries or hubs in the country. They also note the lack of design research that is conducted in the Philippines and recommend the following research areas: “material innovation, multidisciplinary research, … evolutionary changes in traditional wear/textiles, and the use of big data, impact analysis, and sustainability” (Making Design Count report, 2023, p. 83).
Supporting individuals, companies or institutions to research and develop materials using a multi-perspective approach.
Showcases traditional natural materials, contemporary materials, material life cycle information and testing data.
Includes the life cycle information and ecological safety data from material testing in an accessible way to support decision-making.
Experiential learning opportunities to better understand locally available materials in their ecological and social contexts.
Links material designers/producers and those looking to buy ecologically safe materials.
My master’s thesis research was about rethinking how materials are designed and experienced, from land to sea. The resulting design proposal is for a materials hub, specifically for the Philippines.
The materials hub concept was developed with the intention of addressing some of the gaps identified in the country’s design scene and bridging multiple layer of intervention: preventing material harm to marine ecosystems and preserving biodiversity, rethinking the process of designing materials so the focus is not only on technical performance, communicating material properties in ways that can better inform decision-making, and broader cultural shifts in how we perceive, understand and relate to materials.