Sustainable practice can be seen from a range of perspectives, including the idea of Urban Mining materials, rather than using virgin materials. What we choose as materials to work from has a big impact on our practice. A researcher who has taken the practice of urban mining one step further, and has been working in the Bio-Design field for quite some time is Marie Melcore. With her work she is keen to transcend disciplinary boundaries in order to address common sustainability issues and offer out of the box design and ideas proposals that can contribute to solving the big problems we face. In this episode she tells us more about her career, practice and the materials she’s been locating, questioning and transforming as part of her projects.

About the speaker

Marie Melcore is a Design Researcher with a multidisciplinary background focused on Material Research. With a desire to merge her design practice with synthetic biology and sustainable innovation, she graduated in 2021 with a Master’s in Biodesign from Central Saint Martins (UAL).

Her work revolves around integrating living organisms into design processes for innovative outcomes that respond to current ecological challenges. This exploration involves practical applications at the intersection of bio-fabrication and regenerative design, with a particular emphasis on bioremediation in urban spaces. In 2022, she joined the Soft Matters research group at EnsadLab in Paris, as a research
assistant in Biodesign.

During this period, she contributed to the ImpressioVivo research project—a biodesign-led project combining microbiology, 3D bio-printing, and architecture—under the supervision of Dr. Aurélie Mosse. In 2024, she was admitted as a doctoral student at KU Leuven to further her research in regenerative architecture, under the supervision of Prof. Rachel Armstrong. Read about Marie’s work here.

Listen to this Jewellery Podcast episode here on Spotify.

See all the BAJ Jewellery Podcast episodes here.