Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems

Bioproducts and Biosystems projects featured at Helsinki Design Week, 2019-2021

The Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems introduces the public to collaborative research projects through Aalto University's Designs for A Cooler Planet exhibitions, events and talks. Check out these research-led, design-inspired projects that engage the general public in Finland and beyond.
Photo of round black sign with white letters "Designs for a cooler planet" with dried reeds and grasses
Photo by Aalto University / Mikko Raskinen

Each year during Helsinki Design Week in September, Aalto University showcases radical ideas and models contributing to a resource-wise future at the campus-wide event, Designs for a Cooler Planet. Researchers from the Department Bioproducts and Biosystems propose exhibitions, seminars, tours or other events related to each year's themes.

With a focus on multidisciplinarity and high technological and design expertise, featured projects aim toward better solutions for people and the environment to help reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Many such projects receive international recognition and can lead to startups, spinoff companies, and attract new partnerships with agency and company stakeholders.

Resource Wisdom - Designs for a Cooler Planet 2021

2021

Lahjoitus Kemian tekniikan korkeakoululle on sijoitus kestävään tulevaisuuteen

Materialising the Future – CHEMARTS 10 years

Why recycle bio-based materials? Can bio-based materials replace plastics? Does it make sense to use trees as materials?

Events
FinnCERES

Future biorefineries

Researchers in FinnCERES are finding new ways to use the building blocks of wood as replacements for fossil raw materials.

Events
Putretti

Putretti: the sustainable fertilizer exhibited at Designs for a Cooler Planet 2021

Putretti® is a new organic NPK-fertilizer produced from local material flows: compost and wood ash. It can be used for forest fertilization, in agriculture, soil improvement or landscaping.

Events
Forests through Design

Forests through Design

Gathering an understanding of forests, trees and wood material and seeking answers to the forest dilemma through design process. Designer Saara Kantele exhibits her research on forests, design and sustainability at Designs for a Cooler Planet 2021.

Events
SofiaIlmonen_Juhu Huttunen

Other Kinds Of Fashion

Through design creativity we can solve many problems in the fashion industry. Based on different kinds of fashion design approaches, we can take account the extended use phase, different body size, redesigning with old clothes, using natural dyes and creating sustainable beauty. Through these different design strategies, we can transform fashion culture towards one which is in better balance with the environment. 

Events
Race for a Cooler Planet logo Race for the Future

2020

Solar Energy Through ChemisTree Photo: Glen Forde

Solar energy through ChemisTree

Is it possible to use trees in electricity production? Surprisingly, yes, it is! Transparent cellulose films enable greater efficiency of solar cells through their haze effect.

Events
Wood Wonders exhibition at Helsinki airport. Photo: Anne Kinnunen

Wood Wonders exhibition showcases climate-friendly building concepts

If all the buildings constructed in Finland each year were made of wood, the amount of wood needed for their construction would grow back in ten hours.

Events
Bioslime by Chiao-wen Hsu & Yu Chen. Photo: Eeva Suorlahti

What’s cooking? Bio-based material experiments by CHEMARTS

From a bio-adhesive to reed panels and cellulose foam, a unique work created in collaboration with designers and biomaterial researchers shows what natural materials can do.

Events
Wood-based structural shimmering wood colour has no colour pigments. Photo: Valeria Azovskaya

Shimmering Wood by Structural Colour Studio

Nature’s brightest colours – like those found in peacock feathers or butterfly wings – are created through microscopically small nanostructures.

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Colourful costume made with sustainable, natural materials by Urs Dierker

Naturally Dramatic

Sustainable costume design is still in its early days. Despite efforts to move to 'greener' processes, stage and film productions still make costumes in traditional ways with little regard for their impact on the environment or employees.

Events
Nanocellulose yarn that captures hormones from waste water. Photo: FINNCERES

Capturing microplastics and pharmaceuticals from waste water

Hormones and other pharmaceuticals ending up in bodies from natural waters are a globally significant environmental problem.

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Photo by Teemu Välisalmi

ONLINE: Biotech Talks I – NewSilk 2020

'Designing materials on molecular level – what does it mean for researchers, designers - and for the globe?’

Events
Designs for A Cooler Planet

2019

CHEMARTS Summer school 2019

Chemartsing with Bio-based Materials

CHEMARTS Summer School 2019 explored novel material solutions and their innovative applications

Events
New Silk research project

New Silk - What can we learn from spiders?

How to produce new types of silk-like materials in the context of synthetic biology

Events
Circwood project

Circwood: Recirculating wood within the built environment

In Finland, more than one-third of construction and demolition waste is wood.

Events
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