Professor Carole Collet participates in the 13th edition of the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial, open from 22 May to 6 July 2025.
This year, the well-established design biennale in the city of Saint-Étienne focused on Resource(s), Foreseeing the future as its theme, inviting everyone to come and discover bold, new projects and share enriching ideas.
Carole Collet, Professor in Design for Sustainable Futures and Founder and Co-director of the Living Systems Lab Research Group at Central Saint Martins (CSM), UAL, was invited to take part in the biennale by MA Material Futures alumna Marlène Huissoud, who was one of the curators at this year’s biennale.
“My work is centred on how we can work with living systems to develop more ecological ways of making, so it spans anything from bio design research to regenerative design practise,” explains Collet.
While she had already exhibited various pieces of work in previous editions of the biennale, Collet was eager to showcase something new for this occasion.
Titled Harvested Assemblies, the collection of vessels and material samples stems from an investigation into the use of mycelium growth protocols to interfere with existing traditional craft processes and develop new ones. The biological capacity of mycelium to digest and transform materials is incorporated into the process of weaving and woodwork to craft bio-assemblies.
Harvested and grown, the materials were sourced from fallen trees, horticultural garden waste, organic and local reeds and deadstock textiles. As such, the surface patterns emerge from the intersection of hand-made processes (carving, weaving, inlay) and grow-made protocols.
The process began with material research and development of aesthetic in late October 2024, with the active experimental phase commencing in November 2024 and finishing in early May 2025. As a result, Collet created a range of prototypes and small samples using materials harvested in her own garden and circular deadstock wood. Learning about controlling how mycelium grows inward, as opposed to disperse in wood, was extremely challenging at times, requiring more than 100 experiments.
“What I particularly liked was looking at burning the wood, which is a traditional Japanese process,” explains Collet. This method created a stark contrast between the white of the mycelium and the black of the wood, helping greatly with managing the mycelium growth process.
“For that reason, I think the black pieces are my favourite,” Collet reflects.
This was the first time Collet turned to mycelium research in such depth. Having worked with textiles and mycelium in the past, she began to wonder how this ecosystem would transform when combined with other materials such as wood or willow. “It was an ideal opportunity for me to focus and get the work done at last,” she notes.
The research was done under the umbrella of the Living Systems Lab, which Collet founded in 2013 to develop new knowledge in the field of ecology and design centered on living systems thinking. “It’s based on living system thinking, which entails that we as humans work amongst very complex, dynamic living systems and that we are completely co-dependent on other species,” she explains
While the lab is not an actual physical space, it brings together researchers from diverse disciplines — artists, architects, designers, environmental scientists, sociologists, bioengineers, and biologists — and 13 PhD students committed to learn with and from living systems to advance creative, cultural and ecological knowledge.
“It’s profoundly a quest and an inquiry into new modes of ecology, and it’s important to think about how we work with nature as creatives and how we can restore nature and create new perceptions in the entanglement of human species with other species,” believes Collet.
When talking about seeing her work at the biennale, Collet says it’s nice to see it exhibited after so much effort has gone into it — especially as the biennale itself features an excellent set of exhibitions centred around ecology. “It showed really interesting projects that were ranging all the way from practical to inspirational — looking at future imaginaries of ecology,” she adds.
Collet also highlights how this biennale didn’t simply show commercial research or design but invited academics to participate, too. “It’s great when a biennale like Saint-Étienne really engages with academics’ research into new ways of making and not solely showing established commercial design products — it’s really exciting to see that inform the future of our industries,” Collet concludes.