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Through Cluster artists we ask: Is sustainable design an ‘expansion of nature’?

In his keynote lecture at the World Architecture Festival, which took place in Amsterdam at the end of last year, Dr Marco Poletto discussed how “an expansion of the notion of nature is crucial to be able to innovate”. The Co-Founder and Director of London’s ecoLogic Studio began his talk by asking the audience to close their eyes and think of the first thing that comes to mind when we think of “nature”, a word that is perhaps overused and one that in cities we either idealise or distance ourselves from. Natural processes rarely stand up to the tired cliché we hold of them being static and never changing; our experience of nature’s visual impact is one that has been of great interest for years, given that it is a different viewing experience to that of traditional ‘beauty’, as Edward Burke explored in his eighteenth century texts on the sublime. But as we see and experience the reality of humankind’s impact on the planet, is the world of sustainable design looking to duplicate and work with nature or create an artificial extension to nature, as Dr Poletto suggests?

My last visit to the incredible Palais de Tokyo in Paris involved the exhibition ‘Carte Blanche’ by international artist Tomás Saraceno. It was a bewildering and challenging show, exploring ecosystems and interrelations between human and non-human worlds. The large-scale installations were intricate and so thoroughly researched that, as someone with little knowledge of the science of ecology, I found myself reading each citation intently and desperately wanting to understand the rationale and science behind the truly incredible artworks. Almost two years on and I still think about the impact the show had on me, in both its aesthetics and its substance. Although the work was on a huge scale, its aesthetics are very much in-line with the way contemporary artists and designers approach ecosystems and environmental issues, and I can’t stay that I’m unhappy about that!

My last visit to the incredible Palais de Tokyo in Paris involved the exhibition ‘Carte Blanche’ by international artist Tomás Saraceno. It was a bewildering and challenging show, exploring ecosystems and interrelations between human and non-human worlds. The large-scale installations were intricate and so thoroughly researched that, as someone with little knowledge of the science of ecology, I found myself reading each citation intently and desperately wanting to understand the rationale and science behind the truly incredible artworks. Almost two years on and I still think about the impact the show had on me, in both its aesthetics and its substance. Although the work was on a huge scale, its aesthetics are very much in-line with the way contemporary artists and designers approach ecosystems and environmental issues, and I can’t stay that I’m unhappy about that!

Indeed, the term ‘sustainability’ means different things to different people and groups in society, and this is certainly reflected in the world of design, to great effect. Broadening the discourse and the cultures from which different practitioners work makes for a more rounded perspective on how we can use the resources we have to care for the environment and reduce unnecessary waste.

Cluster maker Austeja Platukyte has been putting innovation into practice for the last few years, and is now studying a PhD at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Much like the architecture Dr Poletto speaks of, Platukyte’s work goes far beyond what one might expect in traditional design and the incredible aesthetics of the work reads more like a scientific breakthrough. After her graduate show in 2016, Dezeen reported on the designer’s packaging project which used algae and calcium carbonate to hold products and ensure they are kept waterproof, all the while being biodegradable itself. Newer works include an ongoing research project on decorative eco boards and acoustic panels made from 100% recyclable and biodegradable pressed materials. Here we can see that some designers in the twenty-first century are almost developing new takes on natural resources to supplement the one we have damaged so intensely.

Optimising the aesthetic of this decay is Narelle White, an emerging artist who has just graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and will be featured in Cluster’s London Craft Week exhibition in October. Her body of work ‘Tiny Wonders’, which was a finalist in the Wyndham Art Prize 2020, resembles the mineral properties the works are made from and is inspired by the timeless relationship between people and place. In an interconnected world where we are all online and virtually present but often physically apart, we are being removed from our environments, which makes ecology difficult and almost counterintuitive. Art which brings us back to our awe of nature on a micro level is crucial to our consciousness of coexisting with nature, so it’s lovely to immerse ourselves in White’s practice.

The issue of environmental degradation and crisis may seem disparate from the world of art and design, but the scale of what we face as a planet is so great that the message must be distributed through all streams, and we must change our lifestyles accordingly. Art schools are following suit, investing in the potentially exciting and innovative interdisciplinary work of the creative and ecological research fields. For example Goldsmiths have recently launched an Art and Ecology postgraduate course, then we have Environmental Architecture at the Royal College of Art, which promises “a programme focused on the co-dependence of life forms and earth systems”, and London College of Communication have the very directly titled ‘MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures’. I could go on, but what we see here is the academic take on the environmental crisis (also in Dr Poletto’s talk at the World Architecture Festival) brought to life and into the next generation of practitioners and makers. Perhaps it is not the expansion of nature that we need to develop, but an awareness that, as humans we are existing within the natural world as opposed to parallel to it; looking at the natural world passively at a distance will no longer suffice.

Thank you for reading,
Issey Scott & Cluster Crafts