“Critical Making in Collaboration with Nature”, discusses the outcomes of the Making Sustainability Work project from Fall 2020. With support of CoECI Zaaigelden scheme, the Critical Making learning community put together a group of makers from research, education and industry to explore the implications of designing with natural materials and biological processes, such as biopolymers, fungal composites and bacteria dye.

By following a selection of modules from the Fabricademy global training program, participants explored hands-on techniques to create their own design materials and colours from renewable and biodegradable resources and documented their journeys. The shared experience was reflected upon in a series of interviews and essays touching on the following questions:

• In what way do unruly natural materials challenge ways of doing and teaching design?
• How do grown materials fit into or challenge makers’ goals of sustainability?
• What is needed to bring biological processes into communities of practice in the field of design, art and making?
• How and when does criticality emerge in the making process?
• How do processes of thinking and doing intersect and what is the role of social interactions and collaboration?