The Terra Carta Design Lab competition, run by the Prince of Wales and former Apple designer Jony Ive was launched in 2021 to encourage the discovery of high-impact and low-cost solutions to the climate crisis. Bike and Begüm Ayaskan have received this year’s award with Aerseeds - aerodynamic nutrient and seed pods, made from food waste, that work with nature to accelerate regeneration. Mimicking natural processes, Aerseeds are carried by the wind to cover large areas and reach difficult terrains, where they deliver nutrients and seeds to soils depleted by human activity.
Through the award, the team will receive funding and mentoring from Sir Jony Ive and the partners of the Sustainable Markets Initiative network for the next year to develop Aerseeds in collaboration with Royal College of Art and Innovation RCA. “We hope to make Aerseeds a viable solution to reforestation globally and aim to make Aerseeds open innovation through local and global partnerships,” say Bike and Begüm Ayaskan. “It is imperative to create a network due to the immediacy of climate change; we need to find ways of working together and sharing both resources and information in order to act now, before we reach a tipping point. The next year and beyond will be a very collaborative and open process, where we hope to bring together a lot of industries and people from different backgrounds to create a strong foundation to reforest our planet together.”
The Ayaskans summarize their approach to design as “controlled spontaneity.” They credit RC for providing a diverse education that enabled them to see and implement connections between different disciplines: “We have a more connected world perspective and feel that as long as we can dream something we can find the means and the people to achieve these dreams.”
For more details visit: www.rca.ac.uk/business/terra-carta-design-lab-projects/aerseeds/
Published July 2022
