Designing with Natural Materials

In a world now forced to address the issues of sustainability, environmental impact, and the widespread pollution of land and oceans with manmade materials, alternative resources must be considered for the future of the planet. A vast array of natural materials is available throughout the world with properties that are often superior to the man-made alternatives.

Designing with Natural Materials fills the gap between the current scientific knowledge of the use of natural materials and product design and acts as a bridge between the two disciplines.

The book serves as an introduction to natural materials within the context of design. The chapters include case studies, research, and a historical perspective. It develops ideas of designing with natural materials in specific areas and looks to the future of new biobased materials and how these will influence design. The work offers insight to designers of biobased materials across a range of different design disciplines while also providing insights to scientists on the process of design, production, and the needs of a material beyond those traditionally analyzed in the laboratory. The final chapters touch on the use of bioinspiration and biomimicry in the development and use of biobased materials and how natural design will influence both material design and products in the future.

The book will be of interest to engineers, scientific researchers, professional designers, students, those working in industry who are considering using natural materials as an alternative to current unsustainable options, and anyone who has an interest in the subject.

Angela Morris, BA Hons, MA, MinstPkg, FRSA, ran her own creative packaging design businesses for over 30 years and is now CEO and founder of The Wool Packaging Company and creator of the Woolcool® brand. Angela’s packaging experience covers a variety of different sectors, from major UK retail high street stores such as BHS, global confectionery companies Nestlé and Cadbury’s, to water filtration systems for Fairey Industrial Ceramics and automotive components for Roll-Royce. Working as a packaging consultant and advisor to her clients, she often became an integral part of their businesses, helping companies to market their products successfully, through the introduction of superior and innovative packaging solutions, in many cases utilising natural materials.

Angela has lectured and supervised postgraduate students and given talks on Design Management, Innovation and Green Entrepreneurship at several universities across the UK. Due to the vision, passion, dedication and experience of The Wool Packaging Company founder, Angela was invited by the IOM3 organisation in 2013 to launch and chair the new Natural Materials Association (NMA).

Dr. Ormondroyd completed his PhD (Wood Science) at Bangor University, UK. He has has been the Head of Materials Research at the BioComposites Centre for 6 years and in that time has written many proposals and papers and has undertaken commercial works in all aspects of wood and biomaterials science. Dr. Ormondroyd has over 50 publications including peer reviewed papers, conference proceedings, book chapters and edited books, and he continues to publish regularly. Dr. Ormondroyd is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining, a member of the International Research Group on Wood Protection and in 2015 was short listed for both the Bangor and the Insider Wales Innovation Awards. Dr. Ormondroyd is an editor of 2 International Journals and a reviewer for 6 others.