The Maison/0 Green Trail highlights the best nature-positive projects by our graduating students across design disciplines at Central Saint Martins. Five winners present transformative interventions in their subjects, from regenerative folklore in fashion, to future furniture that forms a symbiotic relationships between individuals and photosynthetic microalgae, to narrative audio environments that walk us through UK farmland and soilscapes, reminding us where our food comes from as we shop.
The Green Trail and its sister award, Maison/0 This Earth, celebrate exceptional nature-positive and thought-provoking graduating work across disciplines, bringing together work that responds to the climate and biodiversity emergencies. The winners were selected from 60 nominated projects and a shortlist of 27 works by the 2023 judging panel: Carole Collet Director of Maison/0, Central Saint Martins UAL, Alexandre Capelli, Deputy Director LVMH Environment, Millie de la Valette, Talent Acquisition Manager, Louis Vuitton, Sara d’Alfonso, Head of Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding, Loro Piana, Caroline Broadhead, Professor Emerita Central Saint Martins, UAL, Tamsin Blanchard, Editor Hole & Corner and Allan Atlee, Dean of Academic Programmes, Central Saint Martins, UAL.
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Peter Nasielski
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Silvia Acien Parrill
Silvia Acien Parrilla BA Fashion, Regenerative Folklore
Silvia wowed our judges with her project Regenerative Folklore. The garments are created using traditional techniques passed to Silvia by her grandmother and are made from certified organic yarns, hand-dyed with a blend of natural dyes sourced from bacteria and invasive plants. Silvia also collaborated with MA Biodesign student Xue Chen’s work on dying with bio-invasive plants.
My collection unites the past and the present, weaving together the memories and identity passed down from my ancestors.
Guided by my grandmother’s wisdom, I honour my heritage through traditional techniques she taught me and local resources that belong to my village, such as esparto and cañaberas. These materials carry the essence of my heritage, and I am dedicated to preserving them for future generations as they hold the authenticity of my genesis."
Ivan Delogu, T'Essere, BA Fashion, LVMH Scholar and L'Oreal prize winner 2023
Ivan promotes sustainability and circularity by transforming humble materials (70’s mosquito curtains, seaweed, deadstock yarn) into something beautiful and refined. His use of traditional Sardinian techniques promotes cultural sustainability by preserving skills and knowledge.
" I approached designing in the context of climate and biodiversity emergency by repurposing waste, be it human or bio based. In Sardinia there is an issue with Posiedonica Oceania, also known as 'neptune grass', a sea grass endangered species. Some of these seaweed grasses naturally end up on beaches, causing a bad smell, and they are removed by the municipality. So I chose to work with bio-waste, which is endemic to my region , but also a means to highlight an endangered species. With my work I also want to encourage local sourcing to reduce the carbon footprint associated with transportation.
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Ivan Delogu
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Ivan Delogu
Jeffrey Miller, MA Material Futures: From the Underground
Jeffrey’s project From the Underground creates a Metro tile made from the waste of the London Underground for the London Underground itself. The materials include naturally forming London clay excavated during tunnel boring and iron oxide-rich dust from train wheels grinding against steel tracks.
Tiles are a defining feature of the London Underground, the world’s oldest metro system, yet their material origins are often unknown. Typically, virgin resources extracted through open-pit mining are used in production. To address this issue, this project makes tiles from the waste produced during the construction and operation of the London Underground itself.
From The Underground offers a juxtaposition to the opaque origins and environmental consequences of ubiquitous materials within our built environment.
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Jeffrey Miller
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Jeffrey Miller
Peter Nasielski, MA Design Symbiocene, Living Furniture
@peterjames.design
In Peter’s future vision, furniture takes on a new role, fostering symbiotic relationships between individuals and photosynthetic microalgae. His collection furthers conversations around how we can intermesh our lives with living systems to benefit our shared planetary ecosystem.
This regenerative paradigm leverages the incredible properties of Spirulina, an edible species of cyanobacteria that captures atmospheric carbon more efficiently than any terrestrial plant.
Each piece of furniture functions as a photobioreactor, or a device for growing algae. The algae growing within the pieces generates a source of fresh oxygen and of edible, vegan protein directly in the home.
Rachel Payne, MA Narrative Environments Consuming Landscapes
‘Consuming Landscapes’ is an immersive audio walkthrough UK farm land and soilscapes, created to be experienced in a supermarket. By critically examining the design of the food buying experience within a supermarket, Rachel’s aim is to inspire the audience to reconsider the origins of the products in their shopping basket, and to challenge some common misconceptions as to what food sustainability is.
"The audio walk aims to highlight the juxtaposition of the realities of modern farming, which contends with the interplay between our need for food production, care for biodiversity and soil, and our experience of a supermarket which contains very little story of the land and the ecological cost of our shopping baskets."
Consuming Landscapes
Explore the entire shortlist on the Central Saint Martins Graduate Showcase.
Maison/0 is the Central Saint Martins-LVMH creative platform for regenerative luxury. Our partnership is committed to leveraging the agency of creativity and education to help regenerate our climate and biodiversity and to empower emerging talents to design a better future.
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Joana Viveiros, MA Art and Science
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Credit: Irene Roca Moracia, MA Design (left), Jiyong Kim, BA Fashion Menswear (right)
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Thomas Black, Fred Cochran, Benjamin Khan, Irene Liakhovenko, Dolores Swann and Kim Trainor,