Design materials for the transition toward post-Anthropocene

Materials are considered fundamental elements of the design process and influence the era we live in, the Anthropocene. The chapter provides an overview of the leading researches on materials for design contributing to a sustainable transition. We will consider the main aspects of new materiality emerging from processes of experimentation and sustainable innovation, highlighting those materials scenarios opening up solutions for a post-Anthropocene epoch. Yesterday, designers were focused on selecting the available materials; today they can design them for their own needs, helping to find and develop more sustainable solutions. This chapter will focus on materials from organic waste, circular materials, and those bio-manufactured from living organisms as an emerging trend that design proposes as a helpful tool for planning the transition to the post-Anthropocene. Organic waste can be considered an alternative source in producing new biobased materials, improving sustainable development and promoting effective waste management. Nowadays, professionals' goal evolves in the diffusion of the circular bioeconomy through design thinking disclosing how materials play an essential role in this ongoing process. By selecting design case studies, we will highlight how materials can contribute to a more symbiotic relationship among industries and circular materials flow, acting as a key player in this transition. Today, the word biomaterials can have multiple but slightly different meanings, reflecting material's differences in technologies, complexity, and potential impacts. An emerging trend in material design is related also to those grown from living organisms, thanks to a radical approach that draws on biology, incorporating the use of living materials into structures or objects. The growing interest in these materials lies in the possibility to biofabricate materials and artefacts from fast renewable and biocompatible little organisms, such as mycelium, bacteria, algae and yeasts. These and other sustainable features trigger designers willing to advance the transition from an oil-based and linear economy to a bio-based and circular one, designing post-Anthropocene futures.