Urns of Restoration
Category: Interior
Competitions: Home Competition 2025
The objective of this project was to design a meaningful object that symbolizes the ecological degradation of our landscape, employing thoughtful considerations of form and materiality, and involving the intentional utilization of materials crafted from the organic matter of local non-native, invasive plant species, which pose challenges to our local environments. Embracing an ethos of restoration within local communities, promoting ecological restoration through the application of craft practices, and tapping into a deeper context of turning this material into a tangible, recognisable object: the urn, which culturally symbolises ‘death’, encouraging the audience to contemplate that we too, shall return to the earth one day, that we too are a part of the system where in nature, death simply means nutrient exchange. This project harnesses and utilizes Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), a non-native, invasive plant species causing ecological damage to our River Wye and local native biodiversity, focusing on ecological restorative craft by removing this plant from the environment, drying, processing, and re-purposing the organic material into a crafted item to bring value to the act of removing and to open up a discourse on beyond sustainable material.
