Threads: Localities & Temporalities of a Fiber Bio-Economy

How can we deal with the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy in which natural fibre could play a major role? Various actors are involved in pushing for this material and socio-economic transformation, from policymakers to producers, corporate investors, climate activists and social entrepreneurs. However, the challenges to reconfiguring the localities and temporalities of circular supply chains on the ground, range from missing technological infrastructures and conflicting regulatory constraints to land use policy, implementing the principles of regenerative agriculture, and managing the material life-cycle. What implications do these have for local actors prototyping radically different ways of growing, making and unmaking?

The second event in the »Activating Circular Network« series unfolded on November 8th, 2023 as a pivotal part of MoA Berlin Science Week. The organizers aimed to bring together diverse actors — researchers, designers, entrepreneurs, activists and artists — to explore the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy of natural fibres.
The one-day event comprised two sessions, ›Localities‹ and ›Temporalities‹, where around 60 participants engaged with speakers invited to give short impulse talks, panels and workshops, to discuss the challenges of different production cycles, building regional supply chains, the potential of new resources, and alternative perspectives on the transition to a bio-economy in which fibres will play a key role.

Workshop Report

The value of the event lay in the diversity of the scales, stances and scopes that the different actors brought to this space of encounter: The decades-old struggle to bring back local plant-based fibre processing for technical textile uses (Torsten Brückner) was followed by an overview of regenerative fibre farming practices (Mina Mahouti & Sarina Sievert). The bio-inspired perspective on biological materials inner structure/architecture, as the defining factor of various materials properties and activities and its potential in sustainable design (Peter Fratzl) finds expression in the establishment of paludicultures, where the rewetting former peatlands produces grasses which can serve as a potential resource for a robust fibre bio-economy (Charlett Wenig), while a hands-on workshop »From ratan to willow« explored fibre-based architectural structures (Natalija Miodragović, Nelli Singer & Molood Seifi). Mobilising people to mine Berlin’s urban fibres and use fashion waste as a resource (Ana Lichtwer) also problematised ideas of the local, as did the re-evaluation of designers approach categories such as ›native‹ plants and ›invasive species‹ (Siren Elise Wilhelmsen). A research strategy for the bio-economy based on algae-based textiles in sports industry points to scaling up prototypes (Marco Schmitt), while the residue-free dissolution of plant-based rainwear as part of an ephemeral fashion industry challenges simple notions of durability (Verena Michels). The historical analysis of the role of chemical catalyst research in the expansion of the fossil-fuel economy problematizes the complex transition to a bio-chemical economy and the temporal frictions these cause (Benjamin Steiger). What challenges do farmers, designers and consumers face in rebuilding agricultural fibre production in a globalised textile market and where is ‘local’ in this interplay? What frictions and discrepancies exist between the different rhythms, seasons and temporalities within the various value chains? How does the transformation to a bio-economy provoke the establishment of a new waste, recycling and repair culture and the connected infrastructures for a sustainable fibre bio-economy? The goal of this event was to look into themes beyond the academic, industrial or activist narratives—each with their own emphasis, constraints and boundary conditions— and problematise the potentials and challenges of the circular and bio-economy, and material sustainability in general, in a multi-perspective space of encounter. We believe such spaces foster further generative interdisciplinary and intercultural encounters and discourses, and help to close missing links for sustainable textile loops in future, from soil to soil. After reflecting on the discussions during the day, feedback we received, and suggestions for further events, we are convinced that the format of these umbrella events offer a much-appreciated space of encounter that can be built upon in the future, and we thank everyone who took part and made it such a fruitful day!

Activating Circular Networks

Calling all of you willing to engage with the wicked problems of building sustainable circular economies! As researchers, practitioners, experts, enterprises and activists, we have multiple perspectives and different approaches to designing for material sustainability at different scales, creating new material ecologies and implementing system-wide change.

This umbrella series of events aims to create a diverse range of formats to open up spaces of encounter between these different realms of activities to build on conversations and emergent co-creations.

Organizers

Prof. Dr. Lucy Norris
Hanna Wiesener
Dr. Khashayar Razghandi

This event was part of Berlin Science Week 2023.

Program

Opening

Localities

Temporalities

Patching an Outlook