Future Observatory Residency Programme
Design Researchers in Residence 2026/27: Grown
Delivered by the Design Museum's Future Observatory in partnership with the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this residency programme supports design researchers at the start of their careers to spend a year developing a new project in response to a theme. This year, the researchers are responding to the theme of 'Grown'.
2026/27 Programme: Grown
The 2026/27 residents are responding to the theme of ‘Grown’, critically interrogating the cultivation of natural, renewable and biodegradable materials.
Algae, fungi, yeast, natural fibres... grown materials are substances cultivated with living organisms, rather than being extracted from the earth. They are renewable and biodegradable, whether they originate in a lab or on land.
The UK's bioeconomy is a government growth priority: the 2025 Modern Industrial Strategy names engineering biology as one of six frontier industries, with an ambition for global leadership by 2030. Globally, the market for mycelium-based materials alone is projected to grow from around $3.6 billion today to over $5 billion by 2030, as fashion, construction and packaging industries look for alternatives to plastic, leather and other petrochemical- and animal-derived materials.
Yet the landscapes in the UK where these materials could be produced are themselves under threat. Seagrass meadows on the west coast of Wales have depleted by 92% over the last century, while only around 30,000 hectares remain of Scotland’s temperate rainforests. The UK's grown ecosystems are as fragile as they are abundant.
How can design research into grown materials help to increase the UK’s bioeconomy?
The 2026/27 Design Researchers in Residence are Afshan Tanweer, Justina Alexandroff, Peerasin Punxh Hutaphaet and Lars Dittrich.
Afshan will be growing structural materials from struvite and vivianite – waste buildup minerals – on a 3D-printed scaffold. Justina will design external wall tiles with patterns based on local plants that encourage the growth of moss, thereby improving the surface’s ability to cope with heat and pollution. Peerasin will develop microbial and bio-based inks and regenerative printing in standardised industry processes and Lars will use medical tools and craft heritage to shape pure mycelium by hand as it grows.
Each resident will critically interrogate the UK's grown ecosystems through case studies, field research and by building human and non-human relationships. The outcomes of this year’s residency will, in their own ways, contribute to the UK’s bioeconomy.
Free display
From June to September 2027, visitors will be able to visit a display showcasing this year's Design Researchers in Residence work. More information will be shared in 2027.
2026/27 residents
Afshan, Peerasin, Justina and Lars. Photo: Justine Trickett
Afshan Tanweer
Afshan is an architect and design researcher, working across architecture and material science. Afshan’s research explores how minerals recovered from waste streams might be cultivated into structural materials for architecture. Following her architectural education at the National College of Arts, Lahore, she graduated from the MArch in Bio-Integrated Design at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture. Her experience in architectural practice, alongside research and experimental fabrication at the Bio-ID Lab, informs an interdisciplinary approach to material innovation.
Justina Alexandroff
Justina is a designer and researcher working at the intersection of biomimicry and computation. Justina's practice explores biodiversity loss in the built environment, examining how pollution disrupts interspecies sensory communication by proposing multispecies design responses. Justina’s practice was shaped by an MA in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins and a BA in Design at Goldsmiths. In 2026 she was the recipient of the Mills Fabrica’s Innovation Award and the Chancery Rosewood Creative Transformation Award. She is currently a Material Design Researcher at Carbon Cell, working with biochar-based materials for packaging that has the potential to enrich compost as it decomposes.
Lars Dittrich
Lars is a designer, researcher and maker whose craft spans biotechnology and material research. His practice explores the material cultivation of mycelium, exploring its unique qualities and rethinking how to adapt it while the material is alive. With a background in fashion, colour, materials and finish (CMF) design, Lars approaches new materials through wearable objects such as footwear and accessories. He uses them as the first site where novel material aesthetics and qualities are tested and understood. Independently, he works as a Knowledge Transfer Specialist for the Microbiology Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His work has been presented at Milan and Dutch Design Week, as well as at National museum Stockholm and the Neues Museum Berlin.
Peerasin "Punxh" Hutaphaet
Punxh is a visual ecologist exploring how graphic communication can emerge through living systems. During his MA in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins, UAL, Punxh developed GROWinK, a regenerative printing system combining fungal pigments with bacterial spores to support the biodegradation of printed materials. His work received recognition through the Swarovski Foundation Sustainable Innovation Scholarship and LVMH Maison/0 Green Trail Award. He is a 2026 Future Materials Fellow at Jan van Eyck Academie supported by the SIA research grant with CHILL at Brightlands Chemelot Camp where his research explores multi-species colour systems.
The programme
Design Researchers in Residence
Design Researchers in Residence is Future Observatory’s programme for design research into the climate crisis hosted at the Design Museum. The residency supports thinkers at the start of their careers to develop new research relating to environmental concerns and centred around a particular theme.
The residency has two main aims: to provide design researchers in the early stages of their careers time and space away from their regular environment to develop and produce new work, and to offer museum visitors an opportunity to engage with live design research projects.
Each year the residency accommodates four researchers, working in different design disciplines, to further develop their individual responses to the theme and brief. The programme culminates in a publication and final showcase at the Design Museum, due to open in June 2026. Each resident is provided with a commissioning budget, which goes directly towards producing the work in the display as well as a bursary to support the development of their career and to fund their practice.
The Design Researchers in Residence programme builds upon the Design Museum’s Designers in Residence programme, which ran from 2007 – 2020. The revised residency programme, now in its fifth year, continues to provide emerging designers and researchers with time and space away from their regular environment to develop impactful new projects that contribute to design research into the climate crisis taking place across the country.
This programme is generously supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Supported by
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, funds internationally outstanding independent researchers across the whole range of the arts and humanities: history, archaeology, digital content, philosophy, languages and literature, design, heritage, area studies, the creative and performing arts, and much more. The quality and range of research supported by AHRC works for the good of UK society and culture and contributes both to UK economic success and to the culture and welfare of societies across the globe.
Future Observatory is a national programme for design research, supporting the UK’s response to the climate crisis. The programme is coordinated by and based at the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Future Observatory aims to accelerate how we find solutions to the most pressing issues. It brings design researchers together with the networks that can help them have an impact on achieving the UK’s environmental goals.
Read the Future Observatory Journal
Future Observatory Journal is a biannual online journal on design, ecology and futures. It's a space for rethinking the frameworks within which design operates. Published by Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition, the journal aims to expand the often narrow scope in which design and ‘sustainability’ are discussed.
Background image: Chordaria flagelliformis, from 'British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions' by Anna Atkins. Courtesy The New York Public Library. Portraits by Justine Trickett.