A biodesigner and engineer fascinated by how we can live more symbiotically through interspecies and intercultural collaboration.
In collaboration with Bio Crafted and Studio Sanne Visser, alternatives to synthetic ropes are being tested in the rebuilding of Coral Reefs. While vegetal fibres have been found to decay rapidly, protein-based fibres, including human hair have shown promising results as an alternative to plastic. Far from being a new invention, In Oceania, Polynesians traditionally made cordage from human hair for a wide variety of marine applications. This project seeks to understand if this practice could be revived, reducing the plastic pollution in the lagoons caused by the synthetic ropes used in marine industries for applications such as coral farming.
Coral Gardeners, founded by a small group of young people in French Polynesia, has grown into a global organisation and is on a mission to save the world’s coral reefs through restoration projects paired with science, innovation and community engagement. Their teams are collecting fragments of heat-resilient corals to grow in nurseries on long lengths of rope. When the corals are large enough to have a better chance of survival, they are outplanted onto areas of damaged reef to help revive the ecosystem.
Year: 2023 - present