Luxury and the New Natural: How designing with living systems can lead to disruptive models of production for the luxury sector.

Whilst the luxury sector thrives on both innovation and tradition, it also very much depends upon raw natural material security and on sustaining access to rare and limited natural resources. Exploring new luxury models inscribed within the 21st century bioeconomy can align the sector’s interests with long term sustainable goals. In the past five years there has been a sharp increase in bio-based material development, including ground breaking new materials derived from synthetic biology. Arguably inscribed within a sustainable narrative, these new materials can offer radical new perspectives for design and manufacture and fuel developments for bio-circular economic models. For designers, this is a context of both tremendous challenges and great opportunities, and the paper will examine the following research questions: In the context of material scarcity and technological abundance how can we explore biomimicry principles to challenge craft and design practices in the luxury sector? How will synthetic biology and the organism industry impact on the future of luxury? Can the luxury sector facilitate a shift from manufacturing towards biofacturing? How do we design for luxury when living cells have become factories of new enhanced natural materials? Examples of innovative design projects will illustrate disruptive creative thinking that can lead to new ways of making in cooperation with living systems, and help envision a future sustainable luxury biomateriality inscribed within circular and biological models of production.