Material Matters with Grant Gibson

Designing for Survival with Harry Blakiston Houston of Insulate Ukraine 03.06.2026 57min

Can a $21 window help a nation survive a war? Harry Blakiston Houston, founder of Insulate Ukraine, joins Grant Gibson for this landmark 150th episode to discuss how a simple double-layer window — made from PET and manufactured entirely in Ukraine — is helping families stay warm, creating local employment, and offering a sense of normality in a country shattered by Russia's invasion. In this episode, we dive into what 'material intelligence' looks like when designing under the most extreme co...

Hella Jongerius on craft, industry and the power of imperfection 27.05.2026 1h 3min

Can imperfection reshape modern industry? Hella Jongerius — one of the most influential designers of her generation, and one of the field's sharpest critical voices — joins Grant Gibson to discuss craft, colour, and her enduring fascination with the messy edges of mass production. In this episode, we dive into the politics of materials and the discipline of long-term collaboration. We discuss: From Droog to Vitra: Emerging in 1993 alongside Jurgen Bey and Marcel Wanders, and what those early ...

Sewing as emotional repair with Leah Jensen 08.05.2026 44min

Can a needle and thread mend more than fabric? Ceramic artist Leah Jensen joins Grant Gibson to discuss the radical pivot in her practice after a brain cancer diagnosis — and how stitching became a daily act of survival, documentation and repair. In this episode, we explore making as medicine and the quiet power of slow, analogue craft. We discuss: Renaissance Patterns: The unexpected art-historical roots of Leah's intricate, geometric ceramic surfaces.'Anti-Digital' Making: Why she rejects s...

Recycling the Unrecyclable with Tom Szaky of TerraCycle 07.04.2026 58min

Can we actually recycle cigarette butts, dirty nappies, and coffee pods? Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle and the reuse platform Loop, joins Grant Gibson to reveal how 'Material Intelligence' can turn global rubbish into a viable business. In this episode, we dive into the economics of waste and the design of a circular future. We discuss: The ‘Milkman’ Model: How Loop is bringing back convenient reuse.Dirty Nappies & Chewing Gum: The tech behind recycling the ‘unrecyclable’.The Problem w...

Revolutionising waste with Sophie Thomas OBE 26.03.2026 58min

Can a communication designer change the global conversation on rubbish? Sophie Thomas OBE—a rare blend of campaigner, chartered waste manager, and practicing designer—joins Grant Gibson to discuss her extraordinary, three-decade journey at the vanguard of sustainable design. In this episode, we explore how ‘material intelligence’ and circular design thinking can inform activism. We discuss: Graphic Activism: How design can move beyond ‘guilt’ to create real environmental change.Rubbish Tours:...

Upcycling discarded denim with Anna Foster of ELV Denim 11.03.2026 1h 9min

Can a discarded pair of jeans become a luxury item? Anna Foster, founder of the sustainable fashion brand ELV Denim, has saved thousands of garments from landfill by proving that they can. She joins Grant Gibson to discuss how ‘material intelligence’ is redefined in the world of high fashion. In this episode, we dive into the complex water footprint of denim and the design of a regenerative fashion loop. We discuss: East London Vintage: How ELV is proving that ‘women are born to innovate.’Rad...

Ending single-use plastic with Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez of Notpla 11.02.2026 56min

Can seaweed eradicate single-use plastic? Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, co-founder of the award-winning packaging company Notpla, joins Grant Gibson to discuss the rapid rise of one of the world’s most exciting alternative materials. In this episode, we dive into the history of seaweed as a resource and the technology of material replacement. We discuss: The Earthshot Prize: How a student project in a kitchen won a global environmental award.The Perfect Replacement: Why seaweed is the ultimate reg...

Tackling waste colonialism with Shubhi Sachan of MLI 28.01.2026 57min

Can a multi-disciplinary designer turn agricultural and industrial waste into raw materials for creativity? Shubhi Sachan, founder of the Material Library of India, joins Grant Gibson to discuss unlocking the potential in India's complex waste landscape. In this episode, we dive into the global and local impact of waste. We discuss: The Material Library of India: Establishing a new center for research in New Delhi in 2017.Waste Colonialism: Tackling the ethical dimensions of international tex...

Carole Collet on the magic of mycelium and regenerative design. 17.12.2025 1h

Carole Collet is professor in Design for Sustainable Futures at Central Saint Martins. She is also director of Maison/0, the CSM – LVMH creative platform for regenerative luxury and co-director of the Living Systems Lab, a research group at the same university. During 2000, she founded the Textile Futures course at CSM, which went on to become Material Futures and has spawned a string of brilliant students attempting to get to grips with some of the most important issues of the day. Sev...

Cubitts founder Tom Broughton on acetate and the history of spectacles. 01.12.2025 1h

This episode of Material Matters is as much about an object as it is a material. Tom Broughton is the founder of Cubitts, a modern spectacles company based in London’s Kings Cross. The company started in 2013 from his kitchen table and has grown to 20 stores across the UK and US, serving 250,000 customers across 100 countries. It offers frames in a number of materials – such as stainless steel and titanium – but is renowned for its use of acetate. According to the company’s website Cubitts wa...

Brodie Neill on ocean plastic (and reclaimed wood). 04.11.2025 53min

Brodie Neill is a Tasmanian-born but London-based furniture designer, who has made a name for himself by creating pieces from waste and reclaimed materials. In 2016, for example, he represented Australia at the inaugural London Design Biennale with his exhibition entitled, Plastic Effects. In it, he showcased the Gyro Table, with a top made of fragments of recycled ocean plastic that had been salvaged from beaches in places like Hawaii and Cornwall. Over the years, his furniture pieces...

James Fox on his extraordinary journey through Britain's crafts. 23.10.2025 1h 2min

James Fox wears a couple of hats. He is director of studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and creative director of the Hugo Burge Foundation. As well as that he is a BAFTA-nominated broadcaster and an author with a brand new book out. Craftland: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Arts & Vanishing Trades is his journey through Britain to discover the craftspeople that literally make this island. En route he meets dry stone wallers, a rush weaver, a thatcher, a letter...

Bonnie Hvillum on biomaterials and 'redefining wood'. 15.09.2025 45min

Bonnie Hvillum is a Danish designer and founder of Natural Material Studio, which, as the names suggests, makes its own materials using natural resources and various waste streams. Working at the meeting point between material science, art and design, the studio creates products, installations, exhibitions and research projects, working with clients such as adidas, Calvin Klein, Noma, Dinesen, Copenhagen Contemporary and the Danish Architecture Centre. Bonnie will also be part of...

Anglepoise's Simon Terry on durability, repair and creating an icon. 09.09.2025 59min

Simon Terry is the brand and marketing director, as well as owner (or as he prefers to describe himself, custodian), of the lamp company, Anglepoise, a product that has genuine claims to iconic status. Initially designed by George Carwardine in the 1930s and manufactured by Herbert Terry & Sons, over the years, the product has been used by the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, David Lloyd George, Picasso, Roald Dahl and Barbara Hepworth to name just a few. More recently, Terry has collab...

Lulu Harrison on making glass from the River Thames. 30.08.2025 45min

Lulu Harrison is a researcher and maker in sustainable material development. She creates glass pieces that have often been inspired by ancient making techniques, working with local and waste resources. Over the years, she has collaborated with historians, material scientists, and artists to create ‘geo-specific’ glass. Lulu has recently won the Ralph Saltzman Prize for her project Thames Glass – which uses various waste materials from the River Thames, including river sand, wood ashes a...

Robin Givhan on her new book, Make it Ours, and how Virgil Abloh changed fashion. 31.07.2025 1h 4min

Robin Givhan is the Washington Post’s senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race and the arts. She won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2006 and is the author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. Her latest book is entitled Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh, which charts the life of the late designer from his childhood in Rockford, Illinois to his position as artistic director at Lo...

Sabine Marcelis on recycled aluminium and resin. 10.06.2025 54min

Sabine Marcelis is a Rotterdam-based designer and artist who, in her own words, is ‘forever in search of magical moments within materials’. She’s probably best known for her work in glass, resin and stone, which often plays with light and water. However, most recently, she has been part of R100, a project with Hydro, which asks a group of internationally renowned designers to create pieces from 100 per cent post-consumer aluminium, sourced and produced within a 100-kilometre radius. It ...

AHEC's David Venables on US hardwood forests and using what nature provides. 03.06.2025 58min

David Venables is the European director for the American Hardwood Export Council. Over the last 20 years, the organisation has created an array of extraordinary installations, sculptures and products – working with the likes of Alison Brooks, Waugh Thistleton, Heatherwick Studio, Jaime Hayon, Benedetta Tagliabue, and Stefan Diez to name just a few – that extoll the virtues of wood in general and US hardwood in particular. Its latest installation. No. 1 Common, will launch at this year’s...

Rosa Whiteley on shells and creating a new building material. 21.05.2025 55min

Rosa Whiteley is a designer, writer and researcher, who trained as an architect at Manchester School of Architecture and the Royal College of Art. Subsequently, she has worked within Cooking Sections, the Turner Prize nominated design and art collective, as a project manager and lead researcher and, since 2021, she has been the director of Material Research for CLIMAVORE CIC, which is a long-term, site-responsive project, exploring how to eat as humans change climates. As part of her pr...

Claudy Jongstra on working with wool and creating her own biodynamic farm. 12.05.2025 56min

Claudy Jongstra is a Dutch artist and designer who has become globally renowned for her, often monumental, textile installations and tapestries made from wool. After establishing her studio in Friesland in the Dutch countryside during 2001, she started an ecological venture, which involved maintaining a herd of indigenous sheep and creating a biodynamic farm near her studio to grow plants used for natural dyes – effectively combining her art with ecological stewardship. Her work i...