The Material Revolution: How Zurich's Design Biennale Is Redefining Sustainable Production

In the dimly lit hall of a repurposed industrial building in Zurich West, a strange forest has taken root. Towering fungal structures stretch toward the ceiling, their surfaces simultaneously alien and familiar—at once biological and manufactured. This uncanny installation, part of the 2023 Design Biennale Zurich, represents a watershed moment in material innovation: the structures are grown, not built, using mycelium composites that could replace conventional building materials. Visitors touch the surfaces in wonder, whispering questions about strength, durability, and biodegradability.

This scene encapsulates the quiet revolution that has been building over the five editions of the Design Biennale Zurich since its inception in 2017. What began as a modest showcase for Swiss design innovation has evolved into one of Europe's most important laboratories for sustainable material futures, challenging conventional manufacturing processes and reimagining what design means in an age of climate crisis and resource depletion.

"We don't need more stuff," explains Nina Paim, Artistic Director for the upcoming 2025 edition. "What we need are fundamentally different relationships with materials, production, and consumption. The material revolution isn't just about finding eco-friendly alternatives—it's about questioning the entire paradigm of how and why we make things."

This revolution has been building steadily through each edition of the biennale. The inaugural 2017 event, themed "Hello Future," laid the groundwork with speculative projects examining how digitalization was transforming design. By the third edition in 2021, the focus had sharpened considerably, with "Resilient Systems" exploring circular economies and regenerative design in the wake of the global pandemic. The 2023 event, themed "SHIFT," pushed further into material innovation with fifteen interactive installations examining transformations across scales—from molecular to planetary.

What distinguishes Zurich's approach from other design exhibitions is its emphasis on process over product. Visitors don't just see finished objects; they witness ongoing experiments, participate in material testing, and engage with designers during active research. "It's a living laboratory," says materials researcher Björn Steinar Blumenstein, who will serve as a curator for the 2025 edition. "We're moving away from the idea of the designer as someone who creates beautiful things toward seeing design as a methodology for tackling complex problems."

This shift reflects Zurich's unique position at the intersection of Switzerland's industrial heritage, world-class research institutions, and evolving sustainability policies. The city has become a nexus for "deep tech" material innovations—those requiring significant scientific advancement and often lengthy development periods before commercial application.

In the 2023 edition, visitors encountered "Ice Formwork," a project exploring ice as a temporary molding material for concrete structures, eliminating the waste typically generated by traditional wooden forms. Nearby, Laurent Hermann Progin demonstrated furniture pieces grown from agricultural waste and mycelium, while the collective Tanski/KOSMOS presented a living installation that harnessed microorganisms to purify water while generating energy.

These projects represent what Vera Sacchetti, a regular contributor to the biennale's curatorial team, calls "critical materiality"—a design approach that examines not only a material's physical properties but also its social, political, and environmental implications. "Every material has a story and a politics," she explains. "When you work with a petroleum-based plastic, you're engaging with a specific global supply chain, power dynamics, and ecological consequences. The same is true for alternative materials, which come with their own complexities."

The biennale's focus on materials coincides with Switzerland's ambitious sustainability goals, including becoming climate-neutral by 2050. In response, many Swiss companies are rethinking their material choices and production methods, creating a fertile ground for the kinds of experimental approaches showcased at the biennale.

This alignment between creative exploration and industrial application is particularly evident in the biennale's relationship with the Swiss materials library Material Archive, which documents and preserves material knowledge. Since 2021, the biennale has contributed annually to this growing repository, ensuring that experimental materials and processes are documented for future designers and researchers.

Looking ahead to the 2025 edition, themed "Designing Transitions: Pathways to Sustainable Futures," Artistic Director Nina Paim envisions an even more ambitious exploration of alternative materials and production methods. "We're bringing together designers, scientists, practitioners from the global south, and indigenous knowledge-keepers to create a truly pluralistic vision of material futures," she says. "This isn't just about finding substitutes for problematic materials; it's about fundamentally rethinking our relationship with the material world."

The 2025 edition will expand the biennale's geographic scope, engaging with design traditions and material innovations from beyond Europe. This global perspective is crucial, Paim argues, because the material challenges we face are planetary in scale. "We can't solve these problems from a Swiss or European perspective alone," she emphasizes. "We need to understand how materials are understood, used, and innovated across different cultures and contexts."

As preparations for the fifth edition continue, the Design Biennale Zurich stands at a critical juncture. What began as a showcase for Swiss design has evolved into an international platform for reimagining the material basis of our designed world. In the process, it has helped transform Zurich into a hub for sustainable material innovation and redefined what a design exhibition can be—not merely a display of beautiful objects, but a laboratory for the future.

When visitors enter the Old Botanical Garden in September 2025, they will encounter not just a series of provocative installations, but an invitation to participate in a profound material rethinking. Through workshops, demonstrations, and hands-on experimentation, they will join designers in asking: How might we design with rather than against natural systems? How can we create materials that regenerate rather than deplete? And ultimately, how can we transition from an extractive material culture to one of stewardship and care?

In answering these questions, the Design Biennale Zurich has become more than an exhibition—it's a catalyst for the material revolution our planet urgently needs.