Fascinating eco-building projects being developed in Arles, France:
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Its door handles are made of salt. Its walls are made of sunflowers. Its furniture is made of Japanese knotweed. And it was stained with dyes made from filtered urine. Is this recycling marvel in southern France the future of architecture?
Atelier Luma develops software to "incite designers to use salt as a material"
Software that simulates the growth of salt in various conditions has been created by Henna Burney and Kalijn Sibbel of Atelier Luma to help designers make use of the material in their own projects.
Developed in collaboration with algorithmic design studio Abnormal Design, the software allows users to visualise and better understand the crystallisation process that occurs in salt flats.
It was developed off the back of a four-year-long design project by Burney and Sibbel with design and research laboratory Atelier Luma, involving exploration of the Camargue marshes in southern France to find new uses for the salt that is produced there.
Atelier Luma has designed a software to visualise the salt crystallisation process
The software is being introduced today by Burney as part of her guest editorship for Dezeen 15, a digital festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th birthday.
As part of the event, Burney will speak to Dezeen's editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs in a live interview to explain why she and the studio believes salt is "a material of the future".
"This will be a tool for designers to start using salt as material and to conceive projects with it," Burney told Dezeen.
"Using the crystallisation process requires somehow a particular way of thinking as salt is a growing material," she added.
It is intended to be used to create a variety of objects
"The tool will make this process simple and more accessible," continued Burney. "This will potentially incite designers to use salt as a material and to understand its limits and its possibilities."
As part of their four-year-long design project at Camargue salt flats, Burney and Sibbel created thousands of salt cladding panels. These were made by submerging bespoke frames underwater at the Camargue salt flats and they are now installed at the Luma Arles art centre by Frank Gehry.
The duo has since been developing ways to use the marshes to create a salt-crystal lamp with the Italian design studio From Lighting.
However, due to the need to create spaces for wires and electrical equipment within the lamp, the studio required more advanced tools than those used to make the panels. This led them to develop the software.
[
Read:
"Salt is a material of the future" says Henna Burney of Atelier Luma
](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/11/12/henna-burney-salt-manifesto-dezeen-15/)
The software, which is hosted on the 3D animation software Houdini, uses algorithms to simulate the growth of salt crystals.
Users of the software can change various parameters, such as temperature, air humidity and wind speed, to observe how this impacts the growth of the salt.
"We worked together [with Abnormal Design] on the development of an algorithm to mimic the salt crystals growth," said Burney.
"This included the salt crystals growth rate, the crystals chance to create secondary crystals and have more faceted crystals, and the maximum size crystals."
The software can also mimic the application of an "anti-crystallisation tool" – materials such as glass or silicone to which salt crystals cannot attach and grow when submerged underwater. These are used to guide the areas of salt growth and create various shapes.
Users can use the software to test different parameters and shapes
"The idea of using these [anti-crystallisation] materials is to stop the crystals, like when you have a cake mould to make the edges of the cake flat," Burney explained.
"This is what we used for the panels we developed for the tower," she continued. "In order to make straight edges, we used a Plexiglas [acrylic] frame instead of cutting the sides after the crystallisation."
According to Atelier Luma, the tool has proven to be "very helpful" already and will be used to continue developing the designs of the salt lamp that sparked the idea for the software. It will now be continually developed so it can be shared as a learning and design tool.
Atelier Luma is a research platform and circular design lab that was established in 2016 by Luma Arles – an arts centre in Arles. It is currently led under the direction of Jan Boelen.
Other projects by the studio include a bioplastic made from algae, which it believed could completely replace fossil-derived plastics over time.
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#softwareandwebdesign #all #technology #salt #software #atelierluma #hennaburney
Henna Burney extols "extraordinary potential" of salt in live interview for Dezeen 15
Day 10 of the Dezeen 15 virtual festival will see material designer Henna Burney of Atelier Luma divulge the potential of salt as a material for the future in a live video interview. Watch from 3:00pm London time today.
"The future will be built with materials that are both new and old," Burney states in her manifesto written for Dezeen 15. "Salt is a material of the future: an essential life-supporting mineral, ancient in its uses and abundant as a resource."
However, she believes designers are currently failing to take notice of abundant natural resources such as salt in the quest for new materials.
"Natural but overlooked materials such as salt have extraordinary potential," Burney explains.
"We only need to look around with fresh eyes, rediscover lost knowledge and chart new ways of thinking about materials and their ecosystems."
[
Read:
"Salt is a material of the future" says Henna Burney of Atelier Luma
](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/11/12/henna-burney-salt-manifesto-dezeen-15/)
Alongside her manifesto, today Burney is also showcasing cladding panels that she made using salt as well as new software that could help other designers make use of the material.
Henna Burney is a material designer based at the design and research laboratory, Atelier Luma, in Arles, France. She specialises in developing new types of biomaterials.
The Dezeen 15 festival features 15 manifestos presenting ideas that could change the world over the next 15 years. All contributors will also take part in a live video interview. See the full list of contributors here.
_The portrait of Burney is byIwan Baan. _
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#dezeen15festival #all #talks #salt #livestreams #atelierluma #hennaburney
Day 10 of the Dezeen 15 virtual festival will see material designer Henna Burney of Atelier Luma divulge the potential of salt as a material for the future in a live video interview. Watch from 3:00PM UK time today.
Atelier Luma uses salt crystals to create glass-like cladding material
Material designers Henna Burney and Kalijn Sibbel of Atelier Luma have used ancient salt marshes in southern France to create thousands of glass-like panels and installed them as cladding inside Frank Gehry's Arles tower.
Over 4,000 of the panels, which are all made from salt crystals, line the lift lobbies on nine floors of the tower, designed by Gehry for the Luma Arles arts centre.
The panels were created by Sibbel and Burney, who are designers at the art centre's design lab Atelier Luma, as part of a four-year-long project in the Camargue salt flats.
The project was carried out to explore the natural crystallisation of salt that occurs there, and develop new applications for the material in the fields of design and architecture.
Salt panels inside the Luma Arles tower
The salt cladding is being exhibited today by Burney as part of her guest editorship for Dezeen 15 – a digital festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th birthday.
Later today, Burney will also speak to Dezeen's editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs in a live interview and explain the studio's manifesto for the use of salt as "a material of the future".
"The wall of salt is a way to prove that it is possible to design with salt and it is possible to take it from its usual applications," Burney told Dezeen.
"It is also a way to prove that materials can also be grown and that maybe not every aspect of its production needs to be fully controlled."
The panels were made by Kalijn Sibbel and Henna Burney in the Camargue salt flats
Burney and Sibbel's study of salt forms part of a wider project at Atelier Luma involving the development of new materials from local resources in the Camargue region.
The ancient salt marshes, named the Salins du Midi, were chosen because the site has been little used in recent years and the designers believed it could be utilised more effectively.
"The salt marshes called Les Salins du Midi situated in the city of Salins de Giraud have been producing salt since the 20th century," added Burney.
"During the fifties, the economy of the region was based on the production of derived salt products as soda and sodium carbonate," she continued. "Nowadays the use of salt is notoriously reduced, making salt an abundant material to be explored."
Each panel is made from salt crystals
To carry out the work, Atelier Luma set up the Crystallization Plant at the site to work in collaboration with saltmakers at the Salins du Midi and learn about the crystallisation process.
Each cladding panel is made by designers Sibbel and Burney using a custom metal mesh frame. The metal meshes are submerged underwater in the salt marshes, where salt crystals grow all over their surface.
This natural crystallisation process takes approximately two weeks and relies solely on the sun and wind.
The result is a series of cladding panels with a glass-like quality. The size and colour of the crystals depend on the weather conditions. According to Atelier Luma, they are also naturally fire-proof, meaning they are safe for use in public space.
[
Read:
"Salt is a material of the future" says Henna Burney of Atelier Luma
](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/11/12/henna-burney-salt-manifesto-dezeen-15/)
By using a natural process of crystallisation, the process of crafting the panels has a low environmental impact and means it can be regularly carried out at the site.
As salt is not a common material to be used inside public buildings, Atelier Luma required certification through the Scientific and Technical Centre for Building (CSTB) in France to use the panels inside Gehry's tower.
To achieve this, the studio studied the performance of the panels in terms of their strength and durability. Crystallised salt is now certified for use.
"This process was an excellent example to prove how the certification organisations are able to adapt their limits in order to accept new and natural materials," Burney said.
Over 4,000 of the tiles are used inside the tower designed by Frank Gehry
Atelier Luma is a research platform and circular design lab that was established in 2016 by Luma Arles – an arts centre in Arles. It is currently led under the direction of Jan Boelen.
The salt panels were not the only interior finishes the studio designed and approved for use in the Luma Arles tower from natural materials.
The toilets are finished in multicoloured tiles made from algae harvested in the salt flats, while thin acoustic material for the building has been made from sunflower waste. The sunflower's seeds are also pressed and used to make biofuel that powers the building.
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#products #all #design #salt #materials #atelierluma #hennaburney
"Salt is a material of the future" says Henna Burney of Atelier Luma
In our quest for new materials, we have overlooked abundant natural resources such as salt, writes designer and researcher Henna Burney of Atelier Luma in her manifesto for the Dezeen 15 digital festival.
"The future will be built with materials that are both new and old," writes Burney in her manifesto. "Salt is a material of the future: an essential life-supporting mineral, ancient in its uses and abundant as a resource."
Alongside her manifesto, Dezeen is publishing projects by Burney including cladding panels made from salt and software that could help other designers to work with the material.
The Dezeen 15 festival features 15 contributors presenting ideas that could change the world over the next 15 years. See the full line-up of contributors here.
A Manifesto for Salt
The future will be built with materials that are both new and old. Salt is a material of the future: an essential life-supporting mineral, ancient in its uses and abundant as a resource.
Natural but overlooked materials such as salt have extraordinary potential. We only need to look around with fresh eyes, rediscover lost knowledge and chart new ways of thinking about materials and their ecosystems.
The Salt Crystals project at Atelier Luma uses salt in innovative ways that chart a different way of thinking about materials and their ecosystems.
Salt is essential for human life and preserves local ecosystems
At Atelier Luma, we know that salt has been firmly embedded in local and Mediterranean knowledge since ancient times. Throughout history, salt has been extremely valuable and was even used as currency at times. Its connections to politics and the economy are known but in the era of globalized commerce, salt has progressively lost its value.
Salt is abundant
Today, salt is an abundant material with little value. There is not enough research around it and not enough interest in all of its physical and mechanical properties. And yet it is a material with infinite potential.
At Atelier Luma, collaborative research in and around the territory of Arles and the Camargue – where salt industries have existed for generations – has shown the potential of salt as a high-value material, particularly when using its crystallization properties. How can we use salt crystallization processes to develop innovative applications and strengthen the historic local salt industry?
Salt’s crystallization cycles mirror natural rhythms
Atelier Luma’s collaborative approach, connecting diverse perspectives and knowledge from the region, proposes a new way to work with salt crystallization, exploring the potential of a natural process that is carbon neutral and produces no greenhouse gases.
The Salt Crystals project uses salt as the starting point to rethink not only the use and production of a material, but also to engage with systems thinking to propose new ecosystems of production, use, and local engagement. Currently, Atelier Luma’s research around salt properties is developing in four parallel tracks as outlined below.
Salt is carbon neutral and highly resistant
A mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride, salt’s melting point hovers around 800 degrees Celsius, rendering it highly fire-resistant. This property was highlighted in the development of a cladding system for Frank Gehry's tower at Luma Arles. Featuring 4,200 panels covering a surface of 560 square metres, in the first large-scale application of salt as a cladding material.
Salt is a reflector and diffuser of light
Thanks to the ionic organization of sodium and chloride, salt crystals are translucent and can be used as a diffuser. It is possible to design a light using the natural crystallization process, where salt becomes a diffuser. Using a custom-developed tool to calculate and mimic the growth of salt crystals, the process of designing with salt is made easier, helping to control, learn and predict the time needed for the intended crystallization result.
Salt is antibacterial
Salt is an effective germ destroyer. In a process known as osmosis, water passes out of bacteria to balance salt concentration on each side of its cell membrane. Without water, bacterial proteins such as enzymes cannot function and eventually the cell collapses. Designing objects made of salt, we can aim to reduce the transmission rates of viruses and other pathogens.
Salt is a catalyst for a new kind of energy
Using differences in salt concentration and reversed electrodialysis technology, it is possible to generate a source of energy. The salt marshes in the Rhone are close to the high flow of the Rhone river, creating a suitable environment for a reversed electrodialysis implantation. These salt marshes can become an alternative way to produce energy for local consumption in the near future.
Salt facilitates collaboration through a multidisciplinary network
The Salt Crystals project is a model for knowledge exchange and production, embedded in Atelier Luma’s mission to develop biomaterials as building blocks for new societal models and aim for systemic change. The project is led by Henna Burney in collaboration with the Atelier Luma team and Karlijn Sibbel.
Above: Henna Burney photographed by Iwan Baan. Main image: Burney creating cladding panels from salt with her collaborator Kalijn Sibbel
Henna Burney is a product designer at the design and research laboratoryAtelier Luma in Arles, France. Her research involves developing new types of biomaterials.
Read more about Atelier Luma ›
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#dezeen15festival #all #design #salt #materials #atelierluma #hennaburney
Salt panels made using "only sun and wind" used to clad interior of Frank Gehry's Arles tower
Natural materials produced from local salt, sunflowers and algae have been used on the interior of Frank Gehry's tower for Luma Foundation in Arles to lower its carbon footprint.
Lift lobbies have been clad in thousands of salt panels produced in the ancient salt flats in the nearby Camargue nature reserve.
The exterior of Frank Gehry's tower for Luma Arles is clad in stainless steel. Photo is by Iwan Baan
Algae from the Camargue, which is the delta of the river Rhône, have been used to produce interior finishes for the building's toilets while sunflower stems have been turned into acoustic panels for the bar.
The materials have been developed by Atelier Luma, a "circular design lab" based at the vast Luma Arles campus in the south of France.
Salt panels clad lift lobbies in The Tower
"Many materials were developed and applied in the building," said Jan Boelen, artistic director of Atelier Luma.
"The building was conceived in 2006 and the work started in 2014," said Boelen, who established the design lab when the Gehry building was already under construction.
"Atelier Luma was founded in 2016. So we were running behind."
Using local materials enhances the connection with the region
Luma Foundation founder Maja Hoffmann agreed to let the lab replace off-the-shelf interior finishing materials specified by Gehry's team with a palette of locally produced products.
This was done to enhance its connection with the region and improve the environmental credentials of the building, which is built of concrete and steel and clad in stainless steel panels.
"Maja took the decision to stop the process of the interior and see what we could do," Boelen said.
The salt is sourced locally
For the salt panels, designers at Atelier Luma developed a way of growing salt crystals on metal mesh placed underwater in the extensive salins, the Camargue salt flats that have been used to evaporate the mineral since antiquity.
"We came up with a solution for a material that really grows itself by crystallisation over two weeks," said Boelen. "No energy is added. It's only sun and wind that is creating these panels."
Salt crystals were grown onto metal frames underwater
The ground-floor bar in the 56-metre-high building is clad in a thin acoustic material made from sunflower waste. Grown locally, the sunflower's seeds are pressed to make biofuel that powers the building.
The rest of the plant is usually thrown away but Atelier Luma has used the waste to produce a cork-like material that has good insulating properties.
"If you have concrete spaces, one of the problems is acoustics," said Boelen. "You can use polystyrene foam or another foamy material made from fossil fuels. But you can also use the leftovers of sunflowers".
The material, which is similar to a sunflower biomaterial developed by designer Thomas Vailly, is made from a mixture of foamy pith from inside the sunflower stem, fibre from the outside of the stem and proteins from the flowers.
Sunflower waste is used for sound-proofing in the bar
Atelier Luma, which is based in a repurposed industrial building at the Luma Arles campus, has developed a local supply chain to produce the insulation and is also developing bioplastic made from sunflower waste.
The toilets at The Tower are finished in multicoloured tiles made from algae harvested in the salt flats.
Algae grow "enormously fast, and they consume CO2 in order to grow," said Boelen. "So they are absorbing CO2. They are capturing and containing CO2."
Algae tiles clad the toilets in The Tower
Waterborne algae come in a variety of colours including pink, which gives the Camargue marshes and the flamingoes that feed off the plant their distinctive rosy hue.
The Tower features 30,000 injection-moulded algae tiles in 20 colours that were developed as part of Atelier Luma's Algae Platform.
Previous projects realised by the platform include a 3D-printed algae bioplastic developed by Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dros. The designers told Dezeen that bioplastics made from algae could one day replace fossil plastics while sequestering vast amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
"The algae grow by absorbing the carbon and producing a starch that can be used as a raw material for bioplastics or binding agents," they said. "The waste product is oxygen."
The injection-moulded tiles come in 20 colours
Boelen's team of 20 designers and researchers has received certification allowing its biomaterials to be used in construction projects and is now looking for partners to help commercialise them.
"These materials are now ready for the market," he said. They can be produced and distributed for other purposes. "
"We are looking for partnerships and investors who want to team up with us to distribute these materials to produce them. We are also looking for other regions in the world where this model of building materials locally can be employed."
The Tower opened last month
Gehry's building opened along with the rest of the 27-acre Luma Arles complex last month. In an interview with Dezeen, the Los Angeles-based architect claimed environmental issues were "taken into account as best I can."
Sustainable elements include natural ventilation of the building's circular glazed podium and renewable power from an on-site biodiesel plant and solar panels.
However, details of the building's carbon footprint have not been disclosed. The team did not submit the building for environmental certification under the voluntary French HQE programme.
"We fit into [the environmental agenda]," the Canadian-American told Dezeen. "But I can't explain it."
"I respond to every fucking detail of the time we're in with the people we live with, in this place," said the 92-year-old when asked about the building's environmental performance.
Carbon revolution
This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.
The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.
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EmilyDuffy
dezeen (unofficial)
