UN_SKIN.

Winner of the 1st NEB 2025 Rising Stars Award in the category ‘Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting the life cycle concept’.

Explore the combination of bacterial cellulose and mycelium to create a new biomaterial with leather-like qualities, intended for the design of products such as modular furniture. The main objective is to offer a circular and regenerative alternative to synthetic or animal-based materials, developing a reproducible biofabrication protocol and improving the stability and resistance of the material.

From the NEB perspective of sustainability and inclusion, the UN_SKIN proposal is based on low-impact production processes, biodegradability, the use of autonomous and local resources, as well as Do It Yourself methods that facilitate the participation of communities and artisans. The project is being implemented as a prototype in Italy and is designed to be replicable by small businesses or manufacturing spaces that want to adopt ecological and circular materials in their processes.