CRAFT & SYMBIOTIC MANUFACTURES

INSTALLATION

Concept: LarbitsSisters

Computational & Toolpath Design: Unfold Design Studio (BE)

Biobased Material Research: Omlab Studio (NL)

Digital Manufacturing: Omlab Studio (NL)

Supported by: Production Grant Flanders Government

With thanks to: TOKAS; KYOTO Design Lab; Kyoto Institute of Technology; Waseda University; Project Associate Professor Gergely Péter Barna ; Associate Professor Kazutoshi Tsuda; Professor Hiroya Tanaka; Professor Hideo Iwasaki

Explorations in Craft and Symbiotic Manufactures

To avert further ecological destruction and global warming, humanity must seek to live in balance with nature. This means moving closer to ecosystems, seeking ways to collaborate with the organisms that sustain life on Earth. What new forms of symbiosis might arise that nourish both humans and the living world?

It is from this question that LarbitsSisters developed Photosynthesising Flowerpots: an artefact brought into being through a symbiosis of a porous, 3D-printed bio structure and photosynthetic cyanobacteria. As the pot shelters its microbial inhabitants with light, air, and moisture, the cyanobacteria, in turn, craft and strengthen the vessel through the slow process of biomineralisation.

Rather than technologies that distance humans from their environment, this work points toward processes of reciprocity —acts of making that rejoin human craft with the cycles of the living. The flowerpot become an artefact, shaped by human intention, microbial agency, and the conditions of its surroundings.

Here, craft is reframed. Once the mark of humanity’s separation from nature, it is restored as a dialogue with the living. Each pot emerges slightly differently, its form bearing the traces of place, weather, and microbial growth. Photosynthesising Flowerpots thus unfolds as a practice of symbiotic manufacture: fragile, entangled, and profoundly alive.

Research for Photosynthesising Flowerpots is carried out in collaboration with Unfold Design Studio (BE) for the computational and toolpath design. Biobased material research and digital manufacturing was realized by Omlab Studio (NL). The project further benefited from the expertise of the KYOTO Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology, and Waseda University, with special thanks to Project Associate Professor Gergely Péter Barna, Associate Professor Kazutoshi Tsuda and Professor Hideo Iwasaki.

Photosynthesising-flowerpots.bio