London designer Lulu Harrison has won the 2025 Ralph Saltzman Prize from the Design Museum for Thames Glass, a project that turns locally sourced and waste materials into glass. Harrison's recipes use materials including sand from around the River Thames, wood ash and waste quagga mussel shells supplied by Thames Water. The Design Museum describes Harrison as a geo-alchemist glass artist whose project explores the possibility of creating geo-specific glass from abundant and waste materials associated with a particular place. Harrison was selected as the fourth recipient of the annual prize by a jury comprising industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, material designer Seetal Solanki, artist and designer Stephen Burks and design journalist and author Michelle Ogundehin, alongside Lisa Saltzman. The judges praised Harrison's research and her approach to mapping the raw materials used in the glass and communicating that process to audiences. She received a £10,000 bursary to continue developing her work. This innovative project demonstrates how creative material science can transform environmental waste streams into artistic and functional applications, offering promising possibilities for sustainable design innovation.
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