The Design Museum reveals Prototype Grants to herald a new era of eco-construction

‘If we’re serious about low-carbon and regenerative construction, we need much more testing and experimentation,’ says Justin McGuirk, director of the Future Observatory, a research programme of the Design Museum, London. With construction supply chains heavily reliant on fossil fuels and extractive processes, developing viable low-carbon alternatives has never been more urgent.

In response, the Future Observatory, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), has awarded £280,000 to four design studios that are creating environmental innovations. Selected from nearly 140 applicants, Searo Labs, Local Works Studio, WeCanMake and South Yorkshire Ecofit will each receive £70,000 to develop their proposals.

The Design Museum's new Prototype Grants explained

‘We felt that £70,000 would enable recipients to develop a proof of concept and take their research towards commercialisation,’ says McGuirk.

Cambridge-based Searo Labs will use its funding to create SearoSoft, a biodegradable, seaweed-based earplug. Founded in 2022 by Royal College of Art graduates Ayça Dündar and Francis Field, the studio develops alternatives to plastic, including foams, films and adhesives.

Described as the world’s first seaweed-based single-use earplug, SearoSoft offers an alternative to the estimated 40 billion disposable earplugs discarded every year. ‘It contains no petrochemicals, every ingredient is food-grade, and it biodegrades in soil and water within 30 days,’ says co-founder Francis Field.

‘The grant gives us nine focused months to take SearoSoft from a working prototype to a product ready for the world’, says Dündar.

Taking a different approach to material innovation, Sussex-based Local Works Studio will develop Ferment, an insulation material made from fermented plant by-products. The project aims to repurpose agricultural waste, transforming it into a resource for sustainable building retrofits.

Local Works Studio’s proposed Harvest-to-House system will enable farmers to produce fermented insulation using existing machinery, skills and infrastructure, establishing a local supply chain for sustainable construction materials. ‘Without the grant, research trials would be too much of a departure from the norm and a financial risk to take – for farmers, the construction industry, or our practice,’ says director Loretta Bosence.

In Bristol, community land trust and regenerative design studio WeCanMake will investigate a homegrown timber construction system for low-rise apartment buildings. Based in the Knowle West estate, the project will produce a timber kit-of-parts prototype, including innovative approaches to materials for shared walls.

‘The prototype grant will enable us to test some important things that would not have been possible otherwise. For example, investigating and prototyping a 100 per cent biomaterial party wall for use in apartment blocks,’ says director Melissa Mean.

Meanwhile, South Yorkshire Ecofit will work with environmental service company Phyona and design practice Studio Bio to investigate insulation made from biomass generated through phytomining. This process involves growing plants on contaminated former industrial land to extract pollutants from the soil, helping to regenerate the land while producing biomass that can be repurposed as a sustainable construction material.

‘We are particularly excited by the possibility of turning materials arising from land remediation into a useful resource,’ says founding director Jonathan Hind.

The social enterprise aims to transform this biomass into carbon-sequestering insulation while establishing a local supply chain for warmer, more sustainable homes.

‘The grant will allow us to expand our work beyond how buildings are improved and begin investigating where the materials we use come from and what wider environmental role they can play.’

By supporting projects at the prototype stage, the Future Observatory aims to bridge the gap between experimental research and practical application. ‘Funding research in practice is critical because construction is slow to change and bound up in established supply chains,’ says McGuirk.

Together, the four initiatives demonstrate how rethinking construction and design materials and supply chains can challenge established practices and help lay the foundations for a lower-carbon, more regenerative built environment.

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