A barber at work in Earl’s Court
(Picture: Anna Doušová)Wearable furniture and the recycling potential of human hair all feature in a new exhibition at the Design Museum.
They are among projects dreamt up by the museum’s four designers in residence who have been challenged to come up with environmentally friendly ideas to help save the planet.
Visitors will see a barbers chair, reconfigured by designer Sanne Visser, to hold and keep hair as it’s cut and a bag containing 2.4kg of hair - the average amount cut every month by barbers working within a one mile radius of the museum in Kensington.
Sanne said: “With our continuously increasing population we are ‘growing’ collectively around 6.8 million kilograms of hair per year annually in the UK, based on estimated average hair growth and population.”
Her project looks at how hair, which usually ends up in landfill, could be harvested and recycled by hairdressers who would become “farmers of the future” with each salon taking on a new role as “a hair farm”.
She said: “Sheep’s wool is a similar fibre to human hair in its chemical composition and quantities.
“With an ongoing decline in wool production and increasing global population, it is estimated that, by 2050, one million tonnes of human hair will be generated globally every year – nearly the same amount of fibre as current global wool production.”
Museum director and chief executive Tim Marlow said: “Climate change is the defining crisis of our time, and design will play a crucial role in helping us navigate this evolving landscape.
“I am delighted that the Design Museum’s four Design Researchers in Residence have been able to create such varied, thought-provoking and potentially game-changing ideas during their time with us.”
Other ideas explored in the display include Samuel Iliffe’s transportable seaweed farm which could be used to counter phosphorus pollution in lakes and rivers and Delfina Fantini van Ditmar’s wearable chair that can be carried on someone’s back and an outdoor shelter made from thrown away clothes.
The free display, which runs from June 24 to September 25, is part of the Future Observatory programme in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
It is the culmination of the annual year long residency which has previously featured work by designers including architect Asif Khan who is currently working on the new Museum of London.
