By means of her discipline-blurring apply, the German-born, Helsinki-based designer Julia Lohmann explores the intersection of ethics, sustainability, and our connection to the pure world. After graduating in Design Merchandise from London’s Royal Faculty of Artwork in 2004, her early work critically examined using animal supplies, questioning how we rework animals into objects and the moral implications of that course of. Lohmann’s ongoing fascination with the alienation between people and nature, and methods through which we will overcome it, has remained a central theme all through her profession.
A pivotal second got here throughout a go to to Japan, the place Lohmann encountered seaweed and recognised its potential as a sustainable materials—likening its versatility to leather-based however with out the moral complexities of animal loss of life. Delving deeper, she found seaweed’s ecological advantages and in 2013 arrange The Division of Seaweed, a platform for interdisciplinary analysis and experimentation with the fabric.
Put in on the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013, the ‘Oki Naganode’ is a large-scale set up manufactured from Japanese Naga seaweed, handled to stay versatile like a translucent leather-based and stretched over a modular framework manufactured from cane and aluminium
(Picture credit score: Julia Lohmann)
Since transferring to Helsinki in 2018 to hitch Aalto College, the place she is affiliate professor of up to date design, Lohmann has superior her apply as a regenerative designer, fostering innovation and ecological accountability in design. We caught up with Lohmann simply days after she was named a Royal Designer for Business by the Royal Society of Arts, to be taught extra about her journey, her groundbreaking work with seaweed, and her imaginative and prescient for a regenerative design future.
A portrait of Lohmann taken on a analysis journey to Iceland in 2023
(Picture credit score: Images by Anna van der Lei)
Wallpaper*: What does turning into an Honorary Royal Designer for Business imply to you?
Julia Lohmann: To grow to be an RDI, it’s important to be nominated and the prevailing RDI fellows need to assessment your nomination, so I really feel very grateful that I’ve been nominated. The ceremony was superb — it was a kind of moments when you possibly can cease and replicate on all you may have achieved. It actually has some that means to be chosen from plenty of different designers from the sphere.
What I discover particularly inspiring, is the truth that for me to obtain the title exhibits how a lot broader the trade has grow to be. So usually there’s a must categorise the form of work you do as a inventive; folks ask, ‘do you do design, or do you do artwork, or what do you do?’ I feel given the challenges that lie forward of us, we have to be grateful that our trade is now actually numerous. With so many alternative skillsets, we’ve got a greater likelihood of discovering extra sustainable methods to exist.
For me, what is actually nice is that the title ‘Royal Designer for Business’ broadens the historically slender definition of commercial design.
‘For me, what is actually nice is that the title ‘Royal Designer for Business’ broadens the historically slender definition of commercial design.’
Julia Lohmann
Pictured right here accumulating kelp in Iceland, Lohmann is fascinated by seaweed’s potential to switch dangerous supplies whereas additionally benefiting ecosystems
(Picture credit score: Images by Anna van der Lei)
W*: In your view, has the design trade made significant progress in fostering inclusivity and embracing sustainable practices in recent times?
JL: I’ve observed a shift in the direction of extra inclusive and regenerative design practices, with a recognition of the wants of all species, not simply people. With regenerative design now recognised as a part of the broader design disciplines, we will extra readily deal with urgent questions and have interaction in mainstream discussions about necessary subjects.
Within the discipline of design, you’re making an attempt to push the bounds of what is potential. You are at all times making an attempt to stretch what you are understanding, or not less than I do. I at all times ask, ‘who is just not included? Who’re we not listening to? Who must be across the desk, who ought to have a say round this subject?’ That is the method that I am going via after I design, and in a approach, is among the causes I’m a designer – since you will be difficult. You’ll be able to critique a discipline that has such a big affect on the world however is usually utilized too unthinkingly.
I feel it is actually necessary that we as designers replicate on the modifications that we’re bringing to this world, as a result of basically, all the things we design designs us again. We have now to be very cautious, when making an attempt to grasp the potential implications our design selections might need.
‘It is actually necessary that we as designers replicate on the modifications that we’re bringing to this world, as a result of basically, all the things we design designs us again.‘
Julia Lohmann
Produced in 2004, Lohmann’s Ruminant Blooms lamps are manufactured from preserved sheep and cow stomachs
(Picture credit score: Photograpahy by Gero Grundmann)
W*: Are you able to inform us extra about your work with seaweed and the way it has advanced over time?
JL: Working with seaweed has shifted my understanding of how ecosystemic questions ought to drive the choice making in a design course of. It gives the potential to switch dangerous supplies whereas additionally benefiting ecosystems. If we are actually going out and saying, ‘seaweed is the reply, let’s simply harvest extra wild inventory’, then we’re simply doing it the unsuitable approach – we’re simply rising the issues for that habitat. I have been exploring the moral issues of seaweed, akin to its skill to tug vitamins from the ocean and create habitats for different species, and the significance of a sustainable, biocentric strategy to seaweed farming.
Put in in Saaporo, Japan, in 2007, ‘The Catch’ is a wave-like sculpture manufactured from greater than 300 used and discarded fish-crates. It addresses problems with over-fishing and our unthinking consumption of marine life
(Picture credit score: Images by Yoshisato_Komaki)
One of many causes I’m a designer, is since you will be difficult. You’ll be able to critique a discipline that has such a big affect on the world
W*: What initiatives have you ever been engaged on currently that you’re excited to see come to fruition in 2025
I am exploring a various vary of supplies and approaches to deal with sustainability and our relationship with the pure world. Currently, I’ve been targeted on constructing bigger seaweed buildings that function levels for discussions about how we relate to our water our bodies. Seaweed is a recurring ingredient in these initiatives — it’s fantastic as a result of it brings the Ocean into the house in a multi-sensory approach, enriching these conversations.
I’m additionally exploring new mediums, together with a movie mission for MIT Museum known as Mitomnia, which takes a philosophical take a look at the connection between mitochondria and people. Moreover, I collaborated with a colleague on a movie capturing the expertise of taking college students snorkeling with a marine scientist to assist them perceive their position as designers.
Past the seaweed initiatives, I’ve been working with land-based organisms and conducting analysis into bio-colours and lighting design from a more-than-human-centric perspective. Whereas the seaweed initiatives have obtained essentially the most consideration, my work spans numerous supplies and approaches, all aimed toward addressing sustainability and rethinking our reference to the pure world.
‘We don’t need our meals to remind us of the animal it’s manufactured from and, on the identical time are in a position to create residing supplies via advances in bio-technology,’ says Lohmann of her leather-based bench collection. ‘The ‘cow-bench’ explores the brink between animal and materials’
(Picture credit score: Julia Lohmann)
We have to rethink the fashions we’re utilizing, significantly when it comes to governance, to make sure we’re not limiting our potential to create sustainable options.
Julia Lohmann
W*: Reflecting on 2024, what are a few of the challenges and alternatives you see within the design trade in relation to sustainability and materials innovation?
JL: The previous few years have seen an thrilling ‘organic flip’ in design, the place working with residing organisms opens up new moral frameworks and materials prospects. There’s large potential in bio-materials, and at my establishment, we’re exploring this via collaborations between chemistry and design. However a problem stays: it takes time and funding to deliver these concepts to market. Typically, firms count on fast options, which may stifle progress.
The problem of mental property additionally considerations me – when firms patent organic processes, it will probably block innovation. We have to rethink the fashions we’re utilizing, significantly when it comes to governance, to make sure we’re not limiting our potential to create sustainable options. Within the coming 12 months, I’m excited to discover native seaweed cultures and allow different creatives to work with the Ocean via TIDAL arts, an EU-funded mission with open requires residencies and commissions.
Annually the RSA places out an open name for RDI nominations. For updates on 2025 nominations, observe @therdifaculty on Instagram. The RSA additionally hosts a collection of open Summer time Periods – intergenerational gatherings the place RDIs, rising designers, scientists and engineers. can share, encourage and problem.
royaldesignersforindustry.org
julialohmann.co.uk
Supply: Wallpaper
