Repairing the Cycle: Sarah Alix Mann’s Approach to Sustainable Design and Fungal Collaboration

When mass-produced wooden furniture is discarded, it not only contributes to landfill waste and pollution but also squanders its potential for natural carbon capture—Sarah Alix Mann’s innovative approach challenges this, offering a sustainable way to return wood to the environment.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah, an industrial designer whose journey from studying politics to specializing in biodesign exemplifies the transformative power of interdisciplinary thinking and curiosity.

Better Place Furniture Return 

Sarah is currently showcasing her work, Better Place Furniture Return, at this year’s Dutch Design Week 2024, and her unique background enhances her innovative approach to design, particularly her engagement with mycelium, fungi, and the life cycles of materials. 

The work is communicated through a furniture recycling kit and a burial performance, which encourages us to consider showing gratitude for the wooden products we use; by offering a ceremonial way to return them to nature once they’ve reached the end of their life.

A mindful alternative to throwing away broken or expired furniture by integrating it back into the environment.

The kit includes everything you need: a biomaterial "body bag," a liquid mushroom culture, a burial manual, and a biodegradable box.

The process is simple—place your expired furniture in the body bag, inoculate it with the mushroom culture, and bury it in a chosen location. The mushrooms break down the wood and its toxic components while the body bag itself, made from biomaterials, supports the mycelium growth.

The accompanying biodegradable box, containing seeds, can be used as a burial marker, eventually growing flowers.

At the heart of this project is the story of "Shiloh," a broken chair at the end of its life. Instead of contributing to landfill waste and releasing harmful chemicals, the chair can return to the forest where its nutrients re-enter the natural cycle.

The Better Place Furniture Return kit makes it possible to honour the life of a tree by returning its by-products to nature, creating a more sustainable and mindful approach to furniture disposal.

We began our conversation by asking Sarah what motivated her to showcase Better Place Furniture Return at the Dutch Design Week.

She explained that, among her extensive body of work, this project held the greatest potential to make a lasting impact.

It encourages conversations around product life cycles and sustainability—urging us to rethink everyday objects by emphasizing repairability and carbon capture. “The project highlights the life of the tree captured in a physical object,” she shared.

Sarah's perspective on materiality is especially compelling. “If trees decay in soil, mycelium can activate and help pull carbon back into the ecosystem,” she explained, stressing how the way we handle wood and mycelium can influence carbon capture.

But in the industrial production of wooden furniture, the clean-cut wood is often treated with chemicals, preventing this natural process.

If we could treat the wood differently—allowing it to absorb water and be broken down by mycelium—the potential for carbon capture could be restored.

Her engagement with audiences through this work has sparked powerful reactions, with many people saying it has completely reshaped their understanding of design.

Bridging Politics and Biodesign

Sarah’s academic path began with a BA in Politics, where she focused on natural resource management and transparency in the extractive industries.

Her studies examined how mining, petroleum, and rare earth elements affect communities and ecosystems. “And so I was very focused on natural resource transparency”, she explained.

“What were the laws that were governing these companies coming into places all over the world? How do those patterns play out with communities with pristine areas of nature with just all these different factors?”

Her research took her to diverse locations like Ghana and China, where she worked in Think Tanks and conducted forest mapping. However, it was her time in Washington, D.C., working on satellite forest mapping, that catalyzed her transition to design.

“I got more involved with the design aspect of the (forest mapping) platform. And interaction design and UX/UI, that got me inspired” Sarah reflected.

Dutch Design Week Inspirations 

Sarah’s journey into design was further sparked during an unexpected visit to Dutch Design Week. “At one point I went to Dutch Design Week,” she recalled. “I didn’t even know what speculative design was, or what discursive and experimental designs meant, but there was something about it that intrigued me.”

For someone grounded in the relatively structured world of politics and resource management, the creative freedom she encountered at Dutch Design Week was both bewildering and exhilarating.

“When you're not part of that field, you get these trickles of information, news headlines,” she explained. “But being there, seeing it first-hand, I felt drawn to it, even though I couldn’t fully articulate why.”

This experience opened Sarah’s eyes to design as a space where ideas could be explored, where the boundaries between disciplines were porous and the questions posed were as important as the answers.

The speculative and experimental nature of the work she encountered shifted her perspective, offering a contrast to the often rigid frameworks of political systems. The world of design allowed her to embrace uncertainty, to question, and to imagine new possibilities.

Thinking through Making

Eager to develop hands-on skills, Sarah enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design, for a Master’s degree in Industrial Design, where the emphasis on making and prototyping allowed her to explore ideas in a tactile manner.

“Politics is cerebral, but I wanted to develop craft skills (…) and that’s what was missing for me,” she noted. This practical experience has been pivotal in shaping her design practice, enabling her to translate complex research into visually compelling forms.

“Rhode Island School of design is known for their hands-on making. The first thing that they do when they get you at the school is teach you how to woodwork, how to do metal work, on how to just start prototyping, no matter what your skill level is.

And I was really coming in as a beginner. But their mindset of thinking through things by making them is pretty revolutionary”.

From there, Sarah went on to work in various settings, where the seeds of biodesign were planted. She gained momentum, creating more artefacts and conducting physical experiments that moved seamlessly from conception to execution.

These efforts culminated in her Master’s thesis that included a range of charming, playful, and nuanced domestic artefacts that brought nature into the home, fostering interaction and care for the non-human.

The Fungierie

Included in Sarah’s thesis was The Fungierie, another striking artefact centered around fungi, which also echoes the theme of care showcased in her Better Place Furniture Return project.

The Fungierie takes a different approach to conventional mushroom cultivation, rethinking the way we interact with fungi. While fungi are found almost everywhere on Earth, growing commercial mushrooms indoors is often a tricky and resource-heavy process.

Mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of mycelium, require the perfect balance of moisture, airflow, light, and a sterile environment to thrive.

The challenge lies in creating these conditions without contamination from mold. Typically, this involves the use of extensive plastic to contain the mycelium and machines running constantly to maintain the right climate, leaving behind a larger-than-expected carbon footprint.

The Fungierie, however, draws inspiration from the natural world to explore more sustainable, symbiotic ways of growing mushrooms.

In West Africa, termites have mastered the art of air flow, building massive mounds that act as natural ventilation systems for the fungi they farm within their colonies.

The Fungierie adapts this principle, using copper mesh to create a similar convection system. As the vessel heats up, it pulls in cool air and pushes hot air out, creating the perfect conditions for the mushrooms to grow.

What’s more, to truly get the air moving and the mushrooms thriving, all it takes is a gentle hug of the vessel—a hands-on approach that resonates with Sarah’s tactile philosophy of making.

With materials like golden oyster mushrooms, plastic, copper, aluminum, and activated charcoal, The Fungierie is more than a functional object. It’s a playful, layered interaction with nature, bringing the process of caring for non-human species into the home.

This sense of connection and collaboration with the living world echoes throughout Sarah’s body of work, weaving together experimentation, sustainability, and a deep respect for the environment.

Bridging Knowledge Gaps

One common trait among biodesigners is that many, like Sarah, don't come from a traditional background in biology.

Sarah also spoke about the challenges she faced in accessing the right resources and expertise. She emphasized the value of conducting thorough literature reviews and the power of networking. Simple inquiries often led to invaluable connections in her field.

"It's about following the trail of knowledge and collaborating with others," she explained. Talking to people, attending events, and keeping conversations flowing were key to getting recommendations and growing her ideas. Essentially, it's about putting yourself out there.

As Sarah wrapped up her thoughts, it became clear there’s no magic formula to success in biodesign. It’s about diving in, putting yourself out there, and being open to the fact that you won’t always know everything—a mindset that has undoubtedly shaped her journey.

Envisioning the Future of Biodesign

As we approached the end of our conversation, I asked Sarah about her vision for the future of biodesign. She expressed a desire for a more integrated understanding of the field, where biodesign becomes part of everyday life rather than an isolated practice.

“I believe everything has a biological component, from materials to the design of our homes,” she explained. “My preferred future embraces this interconnectedness.”

Sarah's work embodies the potential of biodesign to reshape our understanding of materials and our relationship with the natural world. Her journey is a testament to how seemingly unrelated fields can converge to create innovative and meaningful solutions.

As she continues to refine her work, Sarah remains committed to using design as a tool for addressing pressing environmental challenges.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Sarah for generously sharing her time and insights with us, offering our readers a glimpse into her fascinating journey. To explore more of her work, visit her website and follow her on social media.

Her work Better Place Furniture Return at DDW24 will be shown from 19th October until 27th October 2024, Strijp T+R area, BioArt Laboratories, Oirschotsedijk 14-10, 5651 GC Eindhoven.