Crossing Boundaries - Interview
An Interview with Zena Holloway, founder of Rootfull, for UNSUSTAINABLE MAGAZINE
By Nina Purton
In a world full of complex environmental and social challenges, we need innovation more than ever. And it’s not about sector-specific innovations – we need everyone onboard. To bridge the loops as we transition from a linear to circular economy we need all the expertise out there, and we need it collaboratively.
Biotechnology invites us to do just that. Moving away from a human-centric approach, we can observe and learn from living processes and organic matter as the new pioneers of sustainable processes and product design.
Biodesing, a branching practice within the biotech field, breaks the boundaries between art and science, human and non-human. Most importantly, it allows us to collaborate with living organisms to remodel our parasitic relationship with nature to one of symbiosis.
The most exciting part is that biotech shows us just how diverse nature’s solutions are. In this series ‘Crossing Boundaries with Biodesign,’ I will explore everything from design with insects, to mycelium, algae, waste, bacteria, and more.
Today, we’re kicking things off with an innovative designer who decided she wanted to be more than a witness to the devastating impacts of plastic on land and in our oceans, so she took things into her own hands and turned to roots.
Zena was born in Bahrain, West Asia, and raised in London – that is, when she wasn’t exploring the rest of the world with her family. She later continued her prophecy as an innate traveller by taking up underwater photography as a profession which took her to many places.
‘I was so lucky to have a great career being posted around the world with companies to go and shoot campaigns for celebrities, direct underwater advertising commercials and, in that time I visited a lot of the oceans,’ Zena tells me in an interview.
This experience gave her ‘a cumulative kind of knowledge,’ she explains, about the amount of plastic in the oceans. ‘Whenever I got in the water, there was just more.’
She grew tired of witnessing the growing amount of plastic waste and decided to take matters into her own hands by looking for an answer in materials and biotech. She grew mycelium for a year or so until she accidentally found some plant roots in her back garden’s pond that caught her attention.
So she began cultivating them at home and found that they are quicker and easier than mycelium and don’t require a lab. This was the start of Rootfull, Zena’s novel biotechnology that weaves roots into intricate artefacts and surfaces.
The process
The journey from seed to root begins with Zena’s Beeswax templates which she carves and sows the seed onto. The plant root naturally grows downward in search of water and wraps its way around the templates.
Zena started with everyday objects like pots, pans and even her son’s Lego. With time and lots of experimentation, she became more selective, understanding and working with what she calls the natural instinct behind the root’s movements.
She now mixes templates to create intricate sculptures, wall hangings, clothing, and lighting, The latter, for example, need a thicker layer nearer the bulb, but less structural integrity towards the edges which gives space for an ethereal aesthetic.
The psychology of roots
‘It’s very interesting being a material innovator because you start to realise the psychology of different patterns, shapes and textures.’
Plants are not exactly what comes to mind when I think of psychology. But that is the beauty of biotech, it’s all about reshaping the way we figure and position ourselves in relation to the natural world for the best sustainable product design practices.
Zena works collaboratively with the roots she plants, listening to their psychology – the drive they have to grow in certain directions and patterns – to craft intricate and synergetic fabrics that are as organic and alive as they are structurally reliable.
Moving backwards to go forwards
There is something very fascinating about biotech in that it simultaneously works with ancient materials and edge-cutting technologies.
Finding herself in this crossover, Zena tells me, ‘In some ways, it’s going backwards and, in some ways, it’s going forwards. I always find myself sitting on the fence in terms of branding: what should I be?’
Like nature, biotech invites us to exist beyond categories to generate product design processes that are alive and support further life.
‘What I am doing is a craft which is guiding nature’ Zena explains while citing basket weaving or woodwork as examples. ‘It is cultural in a way because it is working with a natural fibre and, in other ways, it’s more scientific.’
Product design of the future – Crossing boundaries
‘It’s taken me a long time to have a vocabulary to communicate,’ Zena says about her efforts in engaging with scientists to explore the potential of roots.
But within our greatest challenges also lies our greatest potential. Rather than seeing it as an obstacle, the struggle to communicate is a symptom of what needs to change: a culture that sets people off on rigid professional paths with little space for crossover.
Biodesign is an invitation to expand beyond these limitations and labels like ‘artist’ or ‘scientist,’ to incorporate more holistic skills and product design practices that align with nature’s principles – it’s business, science and art gone organic.
Taking a leaf from nature, Zena also highlights the importance of being resourceful. As an established underwater photographer, she was able to channel funds from her career into Rootfull but also made sure to use everything she possibly could at home
Resourcefulness was key in her journey, and we both believe this to be so for a future where people and the environment live harmoniously.
‘There’s lots of ways, we can be resourceful with what we have,’ she concludes.
Root necklaces, collars and brooches woven by nature not by man. Root is a delicate natural fibre that unites art, biology and design