Christopher Bellamy: Designing textiles to house life itself

This year, “Lucid Life|Marama Ora” by Christopher Bellamy (2024 MA Biodesign, Central Saint Martins) was chosen to be the cover of UAL’s 2026/27 Postgraduate Guide.

“Lucid Life|Marama Ora” is a bioluminescent material containing micro-algae that emit light after receiving sunlight. Working together with Polynesian artisans, Christopher produced a series of artefacts including a swimsuit, drums, and a necklace that light up when they move. He’s one of our many students using creativity to create lasting change.

From engineer to bio-designer

Christopher Bellamy began his career as a sustainability engineer working on electric cars for Land Rover and outdoor gear at Solomon. After years of working in that field, he realised that reaching their sustainability goals would require a new kind of thinking.

“We designed a recyclable shoe that would never be recycled. We designed an electric car that will be charged on coal-fired electricity.”

He concluded that to reach sustainability goals in the Paris Climate Accords, “We need to change the materials, and we need to learn how to work with humans.”

This realisation led him to apply for MA Biodesign at Central Saint Martins, where he could combine creative thinking with scientific knowledge to create innovation that worked.

“For me, Biodesign was the opportunity to bring those 2 things together. I explore both the irrational and the rational through design and through the arts.”

Studying science at an arts university

Christopher explains why he chose to study a science-based practice at an arts school like UAL.

“You’re following the process and the spirit of a radical art school – the critiques, the questioning, the exploration. And then you interface with science, which is this rigorous hypothesis-led structure of thinking and solving problems. They encourage you to think in both ways.”

Christopher explained that the main draw of Central Saint Martins was its ethos of questioning and testing out new ideas that don’t fit the previous way of doing things.

"There's not a single problem we're facing today that wasn’t caused by someone who was originally trying to do good. Plastics were designed to save lives through medical devices or to preserve food to mean that we could eat for longer.

You can’t just go and learn a formula. You’ve got to go and question everything.

Biodesign  was the perfect blend of all the support you needed, all of the resources you needed and just enough direction and focus to point you in the right direction."

UAL uses workshop-based learning, where students have access to labs across computing, woodworking, metalworking, screen-printing, ceramics, mixed reality, and more. This provided Christopher with the freedom he needed to explore areas he was interested in and try new methods of problem solving.

Exploring life and livingness

His research into living organisms was spurred by an assignment to create a graphic answering the question “what is life?” Christopher was captivated by the question and continued to explore it for his graduate project.

He came across the idea of dividing the world up into an island per person, a thought experiment that asks how each of us should steward the earth. On a trip to French Polynesia, he felt drawn to the ocean as a place ripe for exploration and started working with the bioluminescent algae that lives in those waters.

Christopher’s research was supported by a Central Saint Martins partnership with the Francis Crick Institute, where he used state of the art research equipment to attempt building a textile that would house living material . He also continued to build relationships with Polynesian artisans, who helped him consider different uses of the textile he developed.

“Lucid Life|Marama Ora” has been featured in Dezeen and Grazia magazines and has been exhibited at the Glasgow Botanical Garden, London Design Festival, Hypha Studios and Future Fabrics Expo. Chris has also been awarded the Arts Thread Global Creative Graduate Showcase 2024, the Swarovski Prize for Biodesign, and the Mills Fabrica Prize for Innovation.

Although there are few commercial applications of the bioluminescent textile, the technology that Christopher developed to encapsulate living material could have applications across marine technology and pharmaceuticals. He’s currently working on patenting the idea on behalf of nature and indigenous communities.

Considering postgraduate study

If Christopher had one tip for students considering postgraduate study at UAL, it was to check out the graduate shows for the course you’re interested in.

"When you look at those projects, when you see the images, when you watch the videos and when you read the descriptions – if that makes you really excited, if that makes you inspired about the future, then it's the right programme for you to go and do."

Going forward, Christopher is continuing to explore the relationship between nature and humans through design. He hopes to encourage people to reconnect with nature through innovation.

You can find out more about Christopher Bellamy's work on UAL Showcase or on his website.

Christopher Bellamy features on the front cover of the latest UAL Postgraduate Guide. If you’re in the UK, order your copy to read more student stories and explore UAL postgraduate courses by subject area.

Discover more about postgraduate study at UAL, including how to apply, funding and the student experience.