Korvaa is an experimental science collaboration that explores the design and functionalities of novel, bio-based materials like fungus, bioplastics and protein-based spider silk. Created in partnership with Synbio scientists, industrial designers, artists and filmmakers, Korvaa documents the development of a headset made exclusively from microbially grown materials.
The result is a pure concept that explores the future of product design.
Synbio (short for Synthetic Biology) is a rapidly developing, disruptive technology that enables the design and engineering of new biological organisms and the re-design of existing biological systems for useful purposes. Synthetic microorganisms can produce a variety of desired chemicals, materials, medicine, or fuels from renewable raw materials, waste fractions, and CO₂. This technology will have a paramount role in transitioning from a fossil-based economy to a sustainable, circular bio-economy.
A headset was initially chosen as the first physical implementation to showcase these microbially grown materials in a three-dimensional form because of the variety of materials in the product itself. From a design viewpoint, a headset combines various material properties in compact size and shape; hard, foam-like, pliable, rigid, and solid materials, as well as mesh fabric materials.
The name of the product originates from the Finnish language, where ”Korva” has an anatomical meaning (”ear”) and ”Korvaa” is a verb, meaning ”to substitute, compensate or replace”.
“This was certainly only a surface scratch into where biology-engineered materials are going and what we can do with them in the future.”Thomas Tallqvist, Designer
