Abstract
Biodesign is a flourishing field which exemplifies a radical shift in designer’s role and a changing approach towards materials, processes and systematic thinking. Instead of choosing among conventional materials and manufacturing processes, designers actively engage in developing new alternative materials by exploring the potential of living organisms as integral part of the process. This emerging field of design brings the need of new tools and enhanced knowledge transfer crossing diverse disciplines to investigate novel sustainable and alternative materials, production systems and scenarios. InnoCell is a design-led interdisciplinary research project exploring Microbial Cellulose (MC) that can be obtained through the fermentation of local apple-related byproducts with a culture of bacteria and yeasts (SCOBY). By turning ‘waste’ into novel sustainable substances, the project envisions a production system facilitating and optimizing MC production through open-source cultivation protocols and tools. This would optimize its knowledge transfer, support local small-scale iterations as well as possible industrial scale-up. This paper addresses the iterative development of a bioreactor module (InnoCell Bioreactor) for MC cultivation process based on residues of industrial apple processing. As such, it emphasizes the role of open-source design in raising new sustainable practices to ‘grow’ materials within more circular and distributed systems while fostering local resilience. Furthermore, the potential of locally recovered agri-food waste gives rise to novel applications of MC as edible and non-edible substances.