Introduction

00:00:10

There are so many topics that need attention, especially at the moment. Like your food is wrong, your clothes are wrong, your cosmetics are wrong, everything is wrong and you don't know where, what you can do, what is positive. I feel like design is the perfect tool to do this because it can be a beautiful visualization of all the topics that we are working on.

00:00:38 (38 seconds)

I'm Nienke Hoogvliet. I'm the owner of Studio Nienke Hoogvliet, a design studio based in the Hague. And I'm working on new and innovative materials to change the world.

Sea Me

00:00:54

I wanted to show the beauty of the sea, so I didn't want to make a negative statement to say, oh, we're polluting the sea and we need to do something about it. The sea has so much to offer, so we need to be more protective of it.

00:01:11

And that's when I discovered seaweed and all the great benefits seaweed has for the sea, but also for the whole ecological system. And that's when I decided to make one rug using seaweed yarn, and the discarded fishing nets to have this contrast between the pollution but also solutions that we can take from the sea.

00:01:40

The Sea Me rug, it tells the story, but it doesn't mean that it's finished. It's just the first step on a road to actually making the yarn, making seaweed dyes, and changing something in the textile industry.

00:01:55

But with the rug I want to change perspectives of people and by telling the story of the pollution, but also this new material and the possibilities that are there for more sustainable textiles.

Mourn

00:02:12

When you are a designer, you normally don't want your work to degrade; because when you design a chair for example, you want it to last forever. I started thinking and I thought the only thing that I could think of that we actually want to decompose eventually is our own body.

00:02:36

The project Mourn was a collaboration with the Dutch water authorities because they can make a new kind of bioplastic from wastewater.

00:02:47

I started researching the sustainability of cremations and burials, in the Netherlands. And then I discovered there's a lot of groundwater pollution, and soil pollution because there are too many people in this small parts of soil and the soil cannot process it anymore. So what I did isI mixed the bioplastic with the ashes to make a new material, and also a new type of urn.

00:03:22

It's not like the traditional urn where the ashes are hidden, but it's one object. It will start slowly to degrade and because it's slowly releasing, the nutrients and the toxins in the ashes, the soil can process it much better.There's an emotional aspect to it, but also the ecological aspect and everything just fits.

00:03:53

My designs spark a little bit of hope and inspire people to a more hopeful vision. I think when people have hope they can also maybe get more energy to start this actual change with me.