There is a restlessness that drives the best innovators in emerging fields, which is not the anxiety of someone trying to keep up, but the eagerness of someone who can already see what is not yet there. Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo they shared this attitude for a decade before finding each other, and Quasizerothe studio they co-founded in Perugia, is what happened when these two impatiently pointed out the same problem.
The problem is this: biological materials have produced excellent research and very exciting exhibition work in recent years. What they have attempted to produce, however, is a reliable, repeatable methodology that links organic waste to a finished, functional object. Closing this gap requires interdisciplinary knowledge, working simultaneously in computation, materials science and manufacturing.
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
© Quasizero
Quasizero’s core work is methodological: they take organic by-products from local industries and develop them into paste-based materials that can be 3D printed. The computational side of their practice uses parametric design tools to create geometries that are directly informed by how these materials behave, how they flow, how they set, how they hold their layers. The result is a workflow where material composition and form are developed together, following a philosophy called Nexus.
The QZMini Extruder is a product they developed and acts as a key symbol of their approach. It is a compact syringe-based extruder that can be attached to any standard FDM printer, transforming the machine from a plastic to biomaterial printing device. With a built-in motor and touch screen control box that regulates the flow, it helps the user to regulate these generally unreliable materials and therefore reduces the barrier to working with bio-based materials.
We had a chat with the design duo about the pros and cons of the biomaterials sector, their philosophical approach to design and their predictions for the future.
Interview with Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo:
What attracted you to the field of biomaterials design and led you to pursue it?
Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo:
“What fascinated us the most was how biomaterials, combined with additive manufacturing, allowed us to understand and harness the deep relationship between matter, form and production. This connection, once closely associated with the figure of the Craftsman, someone able to understand materials and enhance their value through the use of specialized tools, has now extended into new professional fields. Architects, engineers and designers are increasingly working with technologies such as 3D printing, which have brought them back into direct contact with the possibilities, limitations and inherent properties of materials.
A deep understanding of materials not only allows designers to better realize the impact created at various stages of the production process, both before and after an object is created, but also encourages a circular approach to design. This perspective makes it possible to rethink production systems, turning materials traditionally considered waste into valuable resources and turning machines into powerful allies in the design process.
This is the aspect that has most fascinated us in working with biomaterials and additive manufacturing, two areas that we apply every day in our practice and in which we strongly believe as essential tools to address the modern challenges related to the widespread use of synthetic materials and the need for more sustainable, distributed and decentralized production models.“
You’ve described the key gap you’re trying to bridge as between experimental biomaterials and additive manufacturing. Why do you think this gap has persisted for so long, given the high interest in both fields?
Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo:
“When we talk about biomaterials and additive manufacturing, we are referring to two separate technologies that, in the last decade, have become increasingly integrated due to the growing awareness of the opportunities that their combination can offer.
Considered separately, biomaterials and additive manufacturing follow very different logics. Biomaterials research focuses on material properties, environmental impacts and the development of new formulations, which are often affected by factors such as humidity, temperature and processing conditions. Additive manufacturing, on the other hand, requires stable and predictable materials that can be properly extruded, retain their shape, and provide reliable performance.
To this difference, an additional technological gap must be added: most 3D printing systems were designed for plastics and not for more sensitive biological mixtures. As a result, researchers and designers are often forced to adapt existing tools, with very few solutions specifically designed to test and scale these materials.
Therefore, integrating these two worlds means addressing both challenges simultaneously and thereby bridging the gap. It is precisely within this space that Quasizero is placed. The challenge is not only to develop higher performance biomaterials, but to create a manufacturing ecosystem that integrates hardware, software, and design methodologies capable of turning these materials into scalable and truly workable architectural systems.
Towards this end, we are developing the QZMini Extruder, an extrusion system designed for printing bio-based materials and easily compatible with both FDM 3D printers and robotic arms. The QZMini Extruder stands out for its compactness and flexibility, enabling a fast, affordable and efficient prototyping process. This is particularly important in the early stages of research and experimentation, where multiple compositions and material compositions need to be tested and validated in a short period of time.”
You describe your philosophy as Nexus, the idea that form should remain consistent with the environment and process that created it. Can you give a specific example where you applied this principle?
Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo:
“The idea of Nexus is deeply rooted in the way we think and design. For us, design is not just about giving form to matter, but about creating relationships between a material, a process, a context, and the ecosystem in which the object will exist.
At the beginning of any research or project, we ask ourselves where we operate and what needs we face. These questions are translated into data that we process through a computational approach, allowing us to create forms and geometries capable of meeting the identified requirements. They are then further developed using bio-based materials and finally manufactured through 3D printing, which implements the relationship between environment, form, matter and production that we establish from the early stages of the process.
One of the first projects through which we began to explore both the complexity and feasibility of the Nexus concept was Trinity, a 3D printed garment realized and exhibited at The New European Bauhaus Festival 2024. Trinity introduces the demands of a surface, in this case the human body, into the design process and material decisions. The geometries that define the garment, as well as the bio-based compositions developed and then printed, are the result of a custom designed algorithm that aims to connect form, matter and function.
Today, Quasizero is in a phase of internal technological development, in which the Nexus concept is gradually translated into tools and algorithms capable of unifying design and manufacturing into a single coherent process. The goal is to build an integrated methodology that allows these principles to be extended to an architectural scale while maintaining the connection between data, materials, processes, and context.“
When you imagine the biomaterials field in ten years, what do you think it will look like, realistically?
Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo:
“Realistically, I believe that the field of biomaterials in ten years will be much more mature, but also much more specific. I don’t think biomaterials will simply replace all conventional materials. That would be an oversimplification. Instead, I think we will see them incorporated where they make the most sense: interior architecture, temporary structures, furniture, exhibition design, packaging or surface finishes.
The biggest change will be that biomaterials will move from experimental samples to material systems. Today, many projects still exist as beautiful prototypes, but the next step is repeatability, certification, durability data, fire performance, water resistance, cost analysis, and scalable construction methods. In ten years, the most successful biomaterials will not only be the most ecologically or visually interesting, but those that can be produced, maintained, repaired, reused or biodegraded within a clear value chain.
I also think the field will become more local. Instead of a global biomaterial distributed globally, we might see local material ecosystems: materials grown from local waste streams, agricultural residues, soil, fibers, minerals or by-products from nearby industries. This is where design and construction can play a critical role, because the challenge will be to transform these local resources into consistent products, objects and architectural elements.“
What question should people be asking about biomaterials sustainability and design that almost no one is asking yet?
Laura Civetti and Juanda Cabrera Cobo:
“I think a question that doesn’t get asked enough is: why do we still design and build as if matter is inert, homogeneous and disconnected from its environment?
In nature, form does not appear as something imposed from without. It emerges through material intelligence, adaptation, growth, stress, environmental conditions, and transitions between different states of matter. Physical systems rarely separate structure and repair into completely independent layers. Instead, they create gradients, continuities and transitions. A bone, a shell, or a tree, is not assembled as a list of industrial parts. They are material systems where form, performance and environment evolve together.
In contrast, much of our current construction culture is still based on standardization, flatness, straight lines, rigid assemblies, and the forced joining of materials with incompatible properties.
For me, biomaterials design it opens a different question. What if sustainability is not just replacing a material with a greener one, but also learning to design matter in a different way? What if we could create objects and spaces with gradients of density, porosity, stiffness, biodegradability and performance, closer to the way living systems organize matter?“
