Pratt Institute's Material Lab Prize awards 3 ​students for their exploration of materials and reclaimed waste

Pratt Institute's School of Design celebrates this year's winner of the inaugural Material Lab Prize. Student winner's for this award receive a $1k grant for exemplifying new and innovative ways to reuse and redesign waste/materials. The top prize was awarded to Sophia Yimeng Sun (MID ’21) and her project, Cocoon, which explores the multifunctional use of plastic bags. 

Sun used HDPE plastic bags to create pleated lampshades. She shares with Material Lab that the project, "reuses waste plastic bags, and provokes minds to contemplate how we deal with waste. I named this project COCOON, not only because it visually compliments a cocoon, but also the project is an homage to 'rebirth.'"

Learn more about each winning project below.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Sophia Yimeng Sun (MID ’21) - "COCOON"

SECOND PRIZE WINNER: Asad Jawed Ahmed (MID ’21) - “Homeware Using Newspaper Wood”

"Newspaper wood is a raw material made from sheets of newspaper, resulting in structure and visuals similar to wood. It also helps trigger conversations about the impact of felling trees for paper and extending the life-cycle of harvested manufactured wood products. This method gives us a sustainable material, a slow designed product that takes over 14 days to a month to get a workable body for use."

THIRD PRIZE WINNER: Julia Brière (Sustainable Design Certificate Program) - “Avocado Waste"

"For my project, I built upon biofabrication methods. I up-cycled avocado waste to create bioplastic and molds. Drawing on how nature works in symbiosis to create circular economies, I discovered a systems solution to repurpose avocado pits and monetize their potential rather than disposing them to a landfill. In February 2020, my project was published on Materiom, an open-source database for natural materials."

To learn more about Pratt's Material Lab and other prize submissions click here.