“Anthropocene,” “Capitalocene,” and “Plasticine” are terms that have emerged in the past fifty years in order to describe the current material realities we encounter on a personal and planetary scale. Reality is irreversibly created and molded by the human hand. The last and the present century have seen numerous material marks left in the geological layers caused by economic and geopolitical processes in the name of progress.

During this Design-Build workshop, students critically examine and embrace the material world that is evolving and developing at the geological scale with a specific focus on bioplastics and food waste. Throughout the seven-week workshop, students collectively explored the Samyan neighborhood, collected food waste from local vendors, and transformed it into new materials and objects.