Christien Meindertsma’s take on sustainable design is revolutionary
Want to be inspired by the possibilities offered by overlooked materials? Head to the Victoria & Albert Museum to see Christien Meindertsma’s ‘Re-forming Waste’ exhibition (open until 19 October).
It’s a geeky and potentially game-changing love note to two materials: linoleum and wool. Deep investigations into both have long occupied Meindertsma, who realised that her mission was to increase the materials’ usefulness by finding ways to make them three-dimensional.
She is planning to utilise the one and a half million kilograms of wool thrown away each year in The Netherlands with the help of her co-created Flocks Wobot– a 3D felter that produces solid-felt pieces (including a lounge chair), much like a 3D printer.
Not content with using wool to make sustainable furniture, Meindertsma is also looking at the opportunities of promoting it as a more environmentally friendly substitute for foam rubber, glass wool, stone wool and polystyrene foam.
For her research into linoleum, she spent a lot of time at flooring brand Forbo’s factories before taking the bold step of buying an entire harvest of flax. ‘I used the oil from the seeds to make my own linoleum,’ she explains. ‘I had to learn what each ingredient did in the recipe so that I could open up possibilities.’
Meindertsma mixed the same oil taken from the flaxseed (also known as linseed) with wood dust – a by-product of the local furniture industry – and chalk left behind from the industrial purification of drinking water. The result was a linoleum that used nothing taken from the earth. It’s the kernel of an idea that has led to ‘Flaxwood’, a new oil-based tile created in collaboration with Dzek.
Meindertsma readily admits that not all of her ideas or research rabbit holes lead to pieces that can be put into production, but it’s the work itself and ‘the unexpected things you find in the process’ that keep her inspired.
‘At a certain point, I realised that all materials have a history and a future, and that every material’s story is relevant because of the impact it can have on people and the environment. So many wonderful options are overlooked and discarded.’
There are words of hope, though – as we would expect from the artist who created the medals for the winners of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize (a design inspired by the ‘Earthrise’ photograph of the Earth from space taken by the Apollo 8 mission, that’s made from recycled brass sourced from water-pipe fittings and household waste, and presented in a recycled-linoleum box).
‘I think,’ Meindertsma tells us, ‘that our children, and their children in the future, will really find us a very strange generation for not understanding the value of the materials that are right under our noses.’ christienmeindertsma.com
