Honorary Mention
The Growing Pavilion is an ode to biobased materials. It stands as a necessary and viable solution for reducing the rising impacts of climate change and the use of fossil resources. We show the possibilities and the new aesthetic of biobased materials to trigger a turnaround in thinking and acting. By combining research and art, we brought our vision to life.
The pavilion is made up of five grown core raw materials: wood, residual flows from the agricultural sector, mycelium, bulrush, and cotton. With every material we use, we show the natural raw material as much as possible. We use them in a way to emphasize their own, distinctive identity. In this way, the pavilion acquires a unique, organic texture, color, and experience. Besides showing the beauty and strength in the construction of the pavilion itself, we fill the interior of the pavilion with grown design objects to show how beautiful biobased furniture, lamps, cabinets, and other objects are.
The Growing Pavilion was built on many years of research. We have documented and showcased our research process in different ways, aiming for full transparency. For example, in the “Materials Atlas, ” we share the collection of all materials found and used. Through this, we want to show how far we can currently go, with the ambition to reach fully biobased creations. But also what the near future will bring. However, it takes more than good materials to make large-scale applications possible. Think of sufficient raw materials, appropriate regulations, innovative designers, and open minded consumers. With The Growing Pavilion we also put this conversation on the agenda and facilitate this conversation, because this is essential to achieve the desired change in thinking and doing.
The Growing Pavilion could be visited in the beating heart of Dutch Design Week 2019. More than 75,000 people—professionals and daily visitors—visited the pavilion there already. Soon The Growing Pavilion can be visited again during Floriade 2022 in Almere.
Credits
Design: Pascal Leboucq, Biobased Creations / Company New Heroes
Concept: Pascal Leboucq & Lucas De Man, Biobased Creations / Company New Heroes & Eric Klarenbeek, Klarenbeek & Dros
Biobased Creations team: Pascal Leboucq, Diana van Bokhoven, Emiel Rietvelt, Lucas De Man, Jasper van den Berg, Amber Bloos, Dona Popovici, Naomi Jansen, Anne Caesar van Wieren, Bente Konings, Wouter Goedheer, Bas van Rijnsoever, Isil Vos, Jip Verwiel.
The Growing Pavilion is made possible by Stichting Doen, Brabant C, BPD cultuurfonds and Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds Beter Bouw Fonds.
The Growing Pavilion is built by Fiction Factory, Tentech, Buitink Technology. In collaboration with: Primum, HuisVeendam, ECO-board, Krown.bio, Braindrop BV, Impershield, Houthandel Looijmans, TenCate Outdoor Fabrics, Botanic Bites, BioBased Delta, Centre of Expertise Biobased Economy (CoE BBE), Natuurvezel Applicatie Centrum (NAC), Sounding Bodies, Juro Coating, Noorderwind, Floriade Almere 2022.
Company New Heroes / Biobased Creations. In 2019 Creative Company New Heroes started Biobased Creations to inspire and activate both professionals and the general public through imagination and storytelling about the possibilities, benefits, and beauty of biobased materials. With our installations and stories we want to contribute to the transition to a biobased economy. We stimulate the demand for materials by making people more aware of the quality of biobased materials. We offer designers a platform and stimulate further development to improve the range of biobased materials. The Growing Pavilion was our first major project.
Jury Statement
Biobased or recycled materials are often evaluated solely as replicas of today’s conventional one-way-ticket materials. Contemporary mainstream aesthetics reflect a production process in which the product itself can be endlessly replicated in sameness—but only until the resources are depleted. Nature shows a different approach, there is neither resource depletion, nor sameness. The Growing Pavilion communicates a future-proof approach to beauty, where everything is unique in texture and color. The walls are grown out of locally harvested plants and mycelium, forming a kind of organic skin instead of an evenly white wall. The creators have reinforced the new aesthetics of growing with the exhibition of unique pieces by Aniela Hoitink, Christien Meindertsma, Diana Scherer, Eric Klarenbeek, Martijn Straatman and HuisVeendam. The core idea of growing instead of manufacturing is seen as a very promising pathway into a sustainable future.