Alganyl: Cooking Sustainable Clothing

Main Article Content

Fiona Bell
Ella McQuaid
Mirela Alistar

Abstract

In this article, we introduce Alganyl, a biotextile created through the embodied knowledge of cooking. Based on existing Do-It-Yourself (DIY) recipes for bioplastics, Alganyl is made from renewable resources, feels like vinyl, and can be re-used before ultimately being composted. We outline three guiding principles for designing with Alganyl: materiality, accessibility, and sustainability. Our replicable process involves cooking Alganyl in the designer’s kitchen, followed by cutting and heat-sealing to create clothing. We apply these guiding design principles and processes to make three articles of Alganyl clothing including a dress, a shirt, and a skirt. Lastly, we address the life cycle of Alganyl, paying particular attention to the clothing’s end of life, which we approach through re-cooking and biodegradation (60 days to degrade 97%). Through our experiences with Alganyl, we believe that it has the potential to bring a future where clothing is an autonomous form of self-expression that has minimal impact on the environment.

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How to Cite
Bell, F., McQuaid, E., & Alistar, M. . (2022). Alganyl: Cooking Sustainable Clothing. Diseña, (20), Article.4. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.20.Article.4
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
Author Biographies

Fiona Bell, University of Colorado Boulder, ATLAS Institute

B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Santa Clara University. Ph.D. Candidate, ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a researcher, she is interested in biomate­rials, biodesign, HCI, and sustainability. Her latest publications include ‘Designing Direct Interactions with Bioluminescent Algae’ (with N. Ofer and M. Alistar; in Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021); ‘Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light’ (with A. Hong, A. Danielescu, A. Maheshwari, B. Greenspan, H. Ishii, L. Devendorf, and M. Alistar; in Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems); and ‘The Undyeing Swatch’ (in Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction).

Ella McQuaid, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Student at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is interested in biomaterials and biodesign. She was awarded a Discovery Learning Apprenticeship (DLA) grant to work on bioplastics, as a part of Prof. Alistar’s Living Matter Lab at the ATLAS Institute.

Mirela Alistar, University of Colorado Boulder, ATLAS Institute

B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politehnica University Bucharest. Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Technical University of Denmark. Assistant Professor in Soft Materials in the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research activity is focused on biomaterials, biodesign, microfluidics, and health. Her most recent publications include ‘Electriflow: Soft Electrohydraulic Building Blocks for Prototy­ping Shape-changing Interfaces’ (with S. M. Novack, E. Acome, C. Keplinger, M.D. Gross, C. Bruns, and D. Leithinger; in Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021); ‘Designing Direct Inte­ractions with Bioluminescent Algae’ (with N. Ofer and F. Bell; in Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021); and ‘Self-deStai­ning Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light’ (with F. Bell, A. Hong, A. Danielescu, A. Maheshwari, B. Greenspan, H. Ishii, and L. Devendorf (in Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems).

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