Crafting Plastics Studio

We’re heading to Berlin.

This September, we will be part of currents.berlin - Design in Berlin, a new community-based event bringing together designers, studios, galleries, brands and institutions across the city.

We’re looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on. Come find us and discover what’s possible with bio-based materials.

📍 Jalousiefabrik
Pücklerstraße 24, Berlin-Kreuzberg

September 10–13, 2026

Opening hours
10 Sep · 12:00–18:00
11 Sep · 12:00–20:00
12 Sep · 12:00–22:00
13 Sep · 12:00–16:00

Today, we present SENSBIOM at - the 1st International Conference on Emerging Research at the Crossroads of Design, Biology, Computation, and Sustainability, at TU Delft.

Our research on SENSBIOM has just been published in Biotechnology Design by Cambridge University Press.

SENSBIOM explores how bio-based materials can become environmentally interactive - sensing conditions around us and translating them into visible or tangible responses.

Across a series of architectural prototypes, the research investigates biochemical sensing through aroma release, cell-free DNA-programmable systems, and photochromic materials that respond to ultraviolet radiation through reversible colour change.

In SENSBIOM 2.0 and 2.1, 3D-printed bioplastic lattices are combined with responsive skins to create large-scale architectural assemblies, transforming invisible environmental conditions into material signals. From a 300-module canopy presented at Milan Design Week to a 160-module responsive curtain, the project explores how sensing can move from the material scale into architecture.

The research points towards a broader idea: materials and architectural systems that don’t simply surround us, but can sense, communicate, and potentially respond to the environments they are part of.

Developed by Crafting Plastics, DumoLab* Research Research, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, and collaborators.

Read the open-access paper SENSBIOM: Biochemical Computation for Healthier Futures in Biotechnology Design.

Presented today at BioDesign ’26, TU Delft - 26–28 August 2026.

What happens when every building block can sense, communicate, and make decisions?

Fab Vine explores a different way of thinking about architecture: large structures assembled from small, identical, reversible parts - where the lattice itself becomes the material.

Each voxel is both structure, computer, and interface. There is no central controller. Instead, every module communicates only with its six immediate neighbours, following the same local rules. From these simple interactions, collective behaviour emerges across the entire structure.

Built around Seeed Studio’s XIAO ESP32-C6 and a custom electronic board, each module combines programmable logic, sensors, an OLED interface, and 40 addressable LEDs embedded into the printed struts.

The system can be designed and simulated directly in the browser before being brought into the physical structure. Modules can be programmed, rearranged, repaired, and rebuilt into entirely new configurations.

The design was developed by Amira Abdel-Rahman Cornell Architected Matter Group . Created as a donor tree for the newly opened Fab Hub at Kendall Square Fab Foundation.

Research and collaboration team: Amira Abdel-Rahman, Roberto Gallo, Fabio Lopez, Ismael Larrea, Vlasta Kubušová, and Diego Zhindon.

What happens when every building block can sense, communicate, and make decisions?

Fab Vine explores a different way of thinking about architecture: large structures assembled from small, identical, reversible parts - where the lattice itself becomes the material.

Each voxel is both structure, computer, and interface. There is no central controller. Instead, every module communicates only with its six immediate neighbours, following the same local rules. From these simple interactions, collective behaviour emerges across the entire structure.

Built around Seeed Studio’s XIAO ESP32-C6 and a custom electronic board, each module combines programmable logic, sensors, an OLED interface, and 40 addressable LEDs embedded into the printed struts.

The system can be designed and simulated directly in the browser before being brought into the physical structure. Modules can be programmed, rearranged, repaired, and rebuilt into entirely new configurations.

The design was developed by Amira Abdel-Rahman Cornell Architected Matter Group . Created as a donor tree for the newly opened Fab Hub at Kendall Square Fab Foundation.

Research and collaboration team: Amira Abdel-Rahman, Roberto Gallo, Fabio Lopez, Ismael Larrea, Vlasta Kubušová, and Diego Zhindon.

We’re excited to be part of Plant Life: The Nature of Design, a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria .

Tracing the evolving relationship between plants and design - from traditional craft to emerging material futures - the exhibition brings together ancestral craft, Indigenous knowledge, industrial histories and emerging bio-based materials.

Sensbiom 2.1. and NUATAN® will be presented alongside projects exploring plant-derived biopolymers, mycelium, algae and other pathways towards a more regenerative material future.

The exhibition features the work of leading designers using plant-based materials, including Formafantasma (Milan), Joris Laarman Lab (Amsterdam), Crafting Plastics (Bratislava), East Architecture Studio (Beirut), alongside Australian practitioners Kate Scardifield, Ed Linacre, Broached Commissions and more.

Plant Life: The Nature of Design
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
28 August 2026 – 7 February 2027

What role can bio-based materials play in the future of robotic construction?

At FAB26 Boston, our bio-based material NUATAN®️ was presented as part of MIT Center for Bits and Atoms’ research into voxel assembly systems.

Developed by Crafting Plastics as a family of advanced PHA-based materials, NUATAN®️ offers a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics while combining high toughness, flexibility, heat resistance and long-term durability. Unlike many bioplastics, it remains industrially compostable at the end of its life.

For the Bhutan Tiny House prototype - including the arch and bench - NUATAN®️ was used to manufacture selected components of the voxel modules through digital fabrication. Lightweight yet robust, these parts demonstrate how high-performance bio-based materials can support precise, modular construction while reducing reliance on fossil-based plastics.

As robotic fabrication and modular construction continue to evolve, material innovation becomes an equally important part of the conversation. Projects like this highlight the potential of bio-based materials in enabling more circular, adaptable and lower-carbon approaches to architecture.

The research is led by Miana Smith Miana Smith, with contributions from Vlasta Kubusova and the Crafting Plastics team, alongside Amira Abdel-Rahman, Alessio Zazo, Alexander Htet Kyaw Alexander Htet Kyaw, Paul Richard, Marcello Tania .tania, Jack Forman Jack Anderson Forman, Sophia Wang Sophia Wang, Jiaming Liu, Tshering Wangzom དབང་འཇོམས། Wangzom, Chirag Sharma, Yeshey Wangmo Lepcha, Subham Chhetri, Tenzin Kuenkhyab and Neil Gershenfeld.
Further support was provided by Anthony Pennes, Dan Gilbert, Eyal Perry Eyal Perry, Sergio Mutis, the Autodesk Technology Center team, Toyota, the DHI team and the entire CBA team MIT CBA.

Animations by Alessio Zazo and Amira Abdel-Rahman.

Senseables collection translates material research into objects that bring environmental responsiveness into daily life. The collection features 3D-printed bioplastic stools whose surfaces change colour in real time when exposed to UV radiation, making invisible changes in our surroundings visible through the material itself.

Available in various distinct forms and a continuously evolving palette of UV-reactive colours, each piece reflects our ongoing exploration of how biomaterials can become more interactive, informative and connected to their environment.

Introducing CreaColors - a mineral-based colour system designed specifically for bioplastics.

By combining a transparent plant-derived resin made from epoxidised soybean oil with carefully selected mineral pigments, CreaColors adds colour and surface protection while respecting the natural character of biomaterials.

The system offers an alternative to conventional synthetic coating systems that can limit the circular potential of bio-based materials.

CreaColors is the result of the research conducted within the PhD thesis of Mgr. art. Soňa Otiepková, with expert consultation from Ing. Lukáš Gál, PhD. from the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

Within the context of Crafting Plastics’ ongoing exploration of bio-based materials, the system was developed and tested as an alternative approach to colouring and finishing bioplastics.

Can colour be sustainable?

Colour is often the overlooked part of material innovation. While developing bio-based materials, we realised that sustainability needs to go beyond the material itself - it also includes the way we colour and finish its surface.

This question became the starting point for a collaboration between Crafting Plastics and the PhD research of Mgr. art. Soňa Otiepková, with expert consultation from Ing. Lukáš Gál, PhD. from the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

This resulted in an alternative approach: a bio-based coating system using a transparent plant-derived resin made from epoxidised soybean oil combined with carefully selected mineral pigments.

The goal was to create a surface treatment that respects the character of biomaterials while adding colour and protection - without relying on conventional synthetic coating systems that can limit their circular potential.