Inside Future Materials Bank at the Jan van Eyck Academy
In 2020, the Jan van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands opened the Future Materials Bank, a multi-member project supporting cataloguing, development and dissemination alternative materials for artists and designers. It exists in several forms: an online archive of over five hundred; materials submissions from 2026, a research lab and a fellowship. Through the accumulation of these material experiments, this project in the Netherlands promotes a future for more sustainable materials in the arts.
view of the Future Materials Lab, Jan van Eyck Academy
In conversation with a future material bank
In conversation with designboom, its members Future Materials Lab – coordinator Dorieke Schreurs, Future Materials Fellow Sophie Boylan and Jan van Eyck Academy Head of Communication and Strategy Solange Roosen – gathered around a computer in the Maastricht lab to discuss the minds and matter that peak their interest.
opening of the renewed Future Materials Lab, March 2025, Jan van Eyck Academy
Change paths in online archive
The material bank, which has become a fundamental point of reference, came as a solution to the pressures of the pandemic. The idea for the space came around 2019, but as the world closed. “The nice collaborative projects couldn’t be done,” reflected Roosen before highlighting how this became an opportunity. “Well, it was designed as an online bank. That was the beginning… we sourced materials, creators and artists who were working in this field and created it. In the last six years, it has grown enough, gained enough attention and recognition that people wanted to join. Then we were able to expand into that, not just the bank, but also start these scholarships.’
detail Future Materials Lab with work by Lucie Ponard and Aurore Piette Studio
detail Future Materials Lab by Ori Orisun Merhav
view of the Future Materials Lab, Jan van Eyck Academy
In the online database, which actively welcomes submissions from the public, there is a whole range 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 project designer Ana Cristina Quiñones grew up. There is a post about an electric blue dye that comes from the mushroom, the Blue Elf Cup. In a recorded conversation that took place at the Academy in June 2022, designer and researcher Liene Kazaka talks about her relationship with blue-green fungi through her work, ‘Myco Colour’. The talk is open and accessible through the website as well.
