INTERIOR FUTURE MATERIALS IN JAN VAN EYCK ACADEMY
In 2020, the Jan van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands opened the Future Materials Bank, an online repository of crowdsourced works that supports the cataloguing, development and dissemination of alternative materials for artists and designers from materials like mycelium and algae. It exists in several forms: an online archive of over five hundred submissions of material from 2026, a research workshop, a scholarship, and recorded and archived meetings with the creators and material appearing on their online platform, also known as “the Bank”. Through the accumulation of these material experiments, the program promotes a future for more sustainable materials in the arts.
view of the Future Materials Lab, Jan van Eyck Academy
IN DISCUSSION WITH FUTURE MATERIALS
In conversation with designboom, members of the Future Materials program – workshop coordinator Dorieke Schreurs, Future Materials Fellow Sophie Boylan and Head of Communication and Strategy at the Jan van Eyck Academy, Solange Roosen – gathered around a computer in the Maastricht lab to talk about mind and matter.
THE Future Materials Bankwhich has evolved into a fundamental point of reference, came as a solution to the pressures of the pandemic. The idea for the Workshop came around 2019, but as the world shut down due to the social distancing measures of COVID-19, “the beautiful collective projects at home could not happenRoosen reflected before highlighting how this became an opportunity. “Thus, the program was designed as an electronic bank. That was the beginning… we sourced materials, artists and designers working in this field and created it. Over the past six years, it has grown quite a bit, gained enough attention and recognition, and more manufacturers have joined. We were able to expand the program. reset the Workshop, meet with creators and start collaborations.
opening of the renewed Future Materials Lab, March 2025, Jan van Eyck Academy
The online database, which actively welcomes submissions from the public, contains a variety of materials organized by their component parts. There is ‘Materia Madura: Reflexión’, a series of mirrors mounted on a frame made of rubbish, coffee and aluminium. The design reflects common waste from Puerto Rico, where the project’s designer, Ana Cristina Quiñones, grew up. There is a write-up for an Electric Blue Elf that comes from the Blue Elf Cup mushroom. In a recorded conversation, part of the Future Materials Encounter series, which took place at the Academy in June 2022, designer and researcher Liene Kazaka talks about her relationship with blue-green fungi through her project, ‘Myco Colour’. THE speech it is open and accessible through the website as well.
Materia Madura: Reflexión, a series of mirrors in a frame made of plane trees, coffee and aluminum scraps, by Ana Cristina Quiñones
VARIETY OF ALTERNATIVE MATERIALS
Materials have an option to filter by qualities, which include categories such as “animal material”, “vegan” and “bioplastic”. Contributing professionals practice a whole range of reuse and invention, ranging from responsibly reusing toxic asbestos insulation to turning menstrual blood into wearable jewelry.
“When we have visitors here in the lab, the samples that very often spark the most discussion and dialogue are human waste.,” Schreurs says of the strangest specimens on file. With a laugh, he lists what falls under the category of “man”: “We have human hair fabric samples and urine soap, these samples always work as icebreakers.”
view of the Future Materials Lab, Jan van Eyck Academy
THE FUTURE MATERIALS FELLOWSHIP
Boylan, who is a 2026 fellow alongside visual ecologist Punxh Peerasin Hutaphaet, shares that before arriving to conduct her research, she was continuing her studies at the Royal College of Art. ‘So, I have been studying fashion for many years, especially in the context of luxury fashion and embroidery. I worked for many designers and very quickly realized how unsustainable the fashion industry is. Which we all know, but specifically with embroidery there’s a lot of plastic, especially petroleum-based plastic in sequins, billions of which are produced every year and a lot of which ends up being wasted.”
