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Nov 07, 2024

Community Gravestone Wins Material Lab Prize - Pratt Institute

As countries grapple with the escalating impacts of the global waste management crisis, calls for circular economies are becoming more urgent. Pratt students are responding to this call to action with

As countries grapple with the escalating impacts of the global waste management crisis, calls for circular economies are becoming more urgent. Pratt students are responding to this call to action with innovative solutions and the fifth annual Material Lab Prize recognized two student projects that transform biodegradable materials into ceremonial and design products.

The Material Lab is a collaborative research center within the School of Design that houses more than 25,000 unique material samples for students to engage with and learn about. The Lab hosts programming to help students better understand the characteristics, composition, application, and impact of materials and the annual Material Lab Prize recognizes exceptional, interdisciplinary student work that explores sustainable product design.

“Now that the Material Lab Prize is in its fifth year, it’s been so great to see it evolve, and especially bring in so many new people,” said Jay Lemire, director of production/labs and material research in the School of Design. “The success of this year’s prize represents the work of so many different hands: from the surprising amount of excellent student projects and their faculty mentors, to the growing team of folks helping to strengthen what we do. Our very own Madeline Isakson, an incredible designer, educator, and member of the production labs team in the School of Design, joined as co-curator, alongside Taylor Wilcox, our student co-curator.”

This year’s Material Lab Prize was awarded to Cameron Brentlinger, BID ’24, for “Community Gravestone,” a gravestone design that facilitates community grieving. The project originated in a Biocentric Design Capstone course taught by Etty Beke, adjunct associate professor of industrial design, in which Brentlinger researched the Potter’s Field on Hart Island, where New York City’s unclaimed and unidentified bodies are buried in mass graves that lack ceremonial markers. Community Gravestone would allow those bodies that are identified to be recognized. It would also honor the impermanence of the space as the bricks, made from local clay, decompose and release seeds into the soil.

“I found out that Hart Island is a natural burial site, meaning bodies are buried sustainably in cedar caskets and they don’t utilize any embalming,” Brentlinger said. “They do this because it’s economical, but coincidentally, it ends up being a very sustainable and environmentally friendly way to bury people and I wanted to honor that in my design. When thinking about the materiality, I considered the research I did on the impermanence of burial spaces. I wondered, what if there were seeds in the material that over time started growing and changing its environment, tying into ideas about the different phases of grief, the cycle of life, and the natural changes on the island?”

Brentlinger explained that her journey at Pratt began as a Photography major, but she transitioned to Industrial Design after creating her own sets and objects for her scenes. “I realized Industrial Design was much more than just making things,” she said, noting that the process required extensive research, problem-solving, and collaboration. “I fell in love with the design process,” she added. “I feel like I can design or make anything as long as I go through these steps that I was taught.”

This year’s jury featured five judges from the fields of art and design, including Chen Chen, BID ’07; Emily Gordon, MID ’22; Sean Kim, MID ’21; designer Nifemi Ogunro; and ceramicist Ellen Pong. The jurors also selected BioShell by Thanat Somwong, BID ’25, for honorable mention.

BioShell is a ready-to-use biomaterial kit that designers can use for prototyping alternatives to hard plastic. Somwong began BioShell as part of the “Prototypes I: Biomaterials” course taught by Jeanne Pfordresher, adjunct professor of industrial design, as a way to reduce reliance on hard-to-recycle plastic for packaging and other consumer goods. He experimented with algae, corn starch, and chitosan, a material derived from shrimp and other crustaceans, to develop a pliable sheet for customizable design uses, before landing on gelatin as the ideal material. He then experimented with natural dyes to create a vibrant color palette for the sheets.

“I worked with materials that I’ve never worked with before and I had to have a very organized, scientific approach,” Somwong said. “As designers, it’s our responsibility to take care of the environment because everything that we make, especially when millions of pieces are manufactured, can have environmental impacts.”

This year’s prize featured several other shortlisted projects, including a stylish bag made from recycled tires by Olivia Julich, BFA Communication Design ’25, and a 3D-printed evaporative cooling structure designed by Vatsal Patel, MArch ’24, which was recently on display at the Building the Future Summit for New York Climate Week.

All of the submissions to the 2024 Material Lab Prize are available to explore online.