When most people think of interaction design, they might conjure in their mind’s eye an augmented reality app, a retail touchscreen, even an entire metaverse. When Bonnie Hvillum studied interaction design at Aarhus University, she was instead drawn to the most analog of experiences: the way in which we respond to tactile materials and how their textures and smells evoke powerful feelings and memories within us. This is especially true of biomaterials, new varieties of which she has been inventing in her Natural Material Studio since she founded it in 2019.

If Hvillum sees her work as part of a larger paradigm shift — “a move towards co-living and co-creating within systems and systemic wholes” — it’s because, alongside her keen interest in how people relate to them, she’s just as interested in the afterlife of her products. “It’s not just about replacing materials, but rethinking the linear mind-shift of growth and consumerism.”

One of her creations is the leather-like Pinel, which salvages the pine needles of misshapen — and thus chopped-down and tossed — Christmas trees, one of Denmark’s largest exports. Here, her twin interests in sensorial experience and ecological benefits converge. “The smells of the essential oils in pine needles are very calm sensors of being in the woods. It has a good effect on people,” she explains. “And that very unconscious first encounter is crucial — it’s what’s going to make the material succeed or not.”

Since it takes years for the third-party Danish Technological Institute to complete standardized testing on her materials for practical uses like upholstery or panelling, Hvillum’s three-person enterprise uses that in-between time to create installations and embark on collaborations with designers on small-scale projects.

Last year, Calvin Klein approached Natural Material Studio to envision a reusable, recyclable and natural holiday gift pouch for its Copenhagen store. A couple years back, the studio partnered with Toronto fashion house Moskal on a gritty leather alternative for a runway collection inspired by coal mines.

Even more impressive is the studio’s consultancy work, where it teams up with a brand to better exploit a waste stream in its production process. For Dinesen, which makes wood floor planks, that meant capturing the sawdust that is usually incinerated and turning it into an integral part of the product. The studio’s mission statement says it best: “By approaching waste as a resource, new value chains are created.”

Top image: One of Hvillum’s projects, Shellware, involved the creation of a new type of clay based on leftover Nordic seashells.