From concrete-like constructing supplies to restaurant tableware made out of restaurant meals scraps, this roundup explores eight tasks created utilizing discarded seashells.
Shells kind the exoskeleton of crustaceans and molluscs and are primarily composed of calcium carbonate, which has properties much like limestone – a standard constructing materials.
Designers all over the world have famous the potential of shells to kind the premise of sustainable merchandise by condensing and mixing them with different supplies. These practitioners have additionally tried to handle the massive quantity of shellfish discarded yearly by the meals trade.
Listed below are eight completely different tasks made out of seashells:
Shellware from Pure Materials Studio
Leftover clams and different seafood shells from Danish restaurant Noma had been utilized by Pure Materials Studio and ceramicist Esben Kaldahl to make tableware, together with plates and bowls.
Referred to as Shellware, the challenge concerned heating calcium carbonate shells to create calcium oxide, which kinds a base materials much like the bone ash used to make porcelain – a key element of conventional ceramics.
Study extra about Shellware ›
Sea Stone by Newtab-22
South Korean design studio Newtab-22 created a brand new materials by grinding up surplus seashells initially destined for landfill and mixing them with pure, non-toxic binders to kind tiles with a terrazzo-like end.
The calcium carbonate-rich shells have properties much like cement, which the studio mentioned makes them an acceptable various to concrete.
Generally known as Piatra de Mare, the fabric was used to create merchandise akin to vases, plinths and ornamental tiles.
Study extra about this sea stone ›
TomTex by Uyen Tran
Discarded seafood shells, together with these from crabs, had been blended with waste espresso grounds to create TômTex, a leather-based various created by designer Uyen Tran. The identify Tôm means shrimp in Vietnamese.
Tran made the fabric in an try to maneuver away from conventional, carbon-rich leather-based, though it may be printed with varied patterns to imitate animal pores and skin, akin to snakeskin.
“Tômtex can reproduce any textural floor, so there are countless prospects for sample design,” mentioned the designer.
Study extra about TômTex ›
Vrå restaurant furnishings by Carolina Härdh
Native designer Carolina Härdh created a stool that doubles as a aspect desk out of oyster shells, rice starch and fish bones from the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Held along with pure fish glue that develops from boiling bones, the voluminous furnishings is characterised by a grey terrazzo-like floor.
To keep away from creating extra waste through the manufacturing course of, the leftover materials was used to kind pebble-like stick scraps generally known as hashioki.
Study extra about this restaurant furnishings ›
Shellwork by Ed Jones, Insiya Jafferjee, Amir Afshar and Andrew Edwards
Shellworks is a challenge by designers Ed Jones, Insiya Jafferjee, Amir Afshar and Andrew Edwards. The group developed a sequence of machines that flip discarded lobster shells right into a paper-like bioplastic whereas learning on the Royal School of Artwork and Imperial School London.
The fabric is made out of a combination of vinegar and chitin – a biopolymer that kinds the arduous exoskeleton of crustaceans in addition to the cell partitions of fungi.
5 machines had been designed by the group to offer a substitute for the costly and time-consuming processes concerned in making chitosan, the commercially obtainable model of chitin.
Study extra about Shellworks ›
Bio-concrete by Brigitte Kock and Irene Roca Moracia
Designers and former Central Saint Martins college students Brigitte Kock and Irene Roca Moracia have created a fabric they name bio-concrete from Japanese rattan and American flag crayfish shells.
Kock and Moracia selected these biomaterials due to the ecological and financial injury they trigger within the UK as non-native, invasive species. The designers needed to offer these species a brand new goal, combining them to create a fabric that helps restore native biodiversity.
Study extra about this bio-concrete ›
Off the Menu by Carly Breame
Supplies researcher and maker Carly Breame has designed a group of menu-style tableware for Angela’s restaurant in Margate, made out of meals scraps, which incorporates an appetizer created from clams, oysters and clam shells.
“One ceramic plate can have ten components, all providing one thing completely different,” Breame advised Dezeen. “So primarily I am trying to exchange each ingredient with a waste supply.”
Study extra about Off the Menu ›
Shellmet by TBWAHakuhodo and Koushi Chemical Trade Co
Shellmet is a tough hat designed as a protecting accent for fishing employees, which promoting company TBWAHakuhodo and plastics producer Koushi Chemical Trade Co created utilizing waste shells and recycled plastic.
That includes an indented design based mostly on the ribbed floor of clams, the challenge intends to reply to the massive variety of extra clams that accumulate as landfill within the village of Sarufutsu in Japan.
Study extra about Shellmet ›