Decolonized Decarbonized Dinner Party &
© 2025 Michele Gorman, Yvette Chaparro, and Preeti Gopinath
This book is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. The author and publisher do not offer it as professional services advice. The best efforts were made in preparing this book, but the author and publisher make no representations or warranties of any kind and assume no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be held liable or responsible to any person or entity with respect to any loss or incidental or consequential damages caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained herein.
Cover image: Luisa Mantelli, Merging and Manipulating Erva Mate
Design: Original Copy
Typefaces: UltraSolar, ABC Diatype
This book results from our third dinner party held at Governor’s Island in New York during Earth Day celebrations in the Spring of 2024. Our A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party endeavor started in the Spring of 2022 as a group of workshops and a symposium around food and waste. Students from diverse backgrounds from the School of Constructed Environments (SCE) and the School of Fashion (SoF) at Parsons/The New School joined to explore the thematics around the topics and offer their varied views. The second year included participants from South Africa, Egypt, Peru, and Zurich, as well as our students and faculty, in the form of a symposium on water systems.
This third iteration focused on food systems, food ecologies, regenerative material practices, local processes, and Indigenous knowledge. The students came from two classes, an elective entitled Decolonized and Decarbonized Dinner Party and the studio Interior Food Ecologies. As in previous iterations, this included students from SCE, SoF, and any other community member who wanted to offer their projects.
The methods used by the participants that have been encouraged and identified include exploratory practices of materiality, community-based learning, Indigenous practices and how they can be applied to a contemporary environment and questioning of current design practices.
Some of the projects include Jonah Goodman’s “Modern.Culture” project involving fermented kombucha starting with black and green tea; Shreya Dwivedi using locally foraged materials to design site-specific materials and finishes for interiors; “Erva Mate Gourd” by Luisa Mantelli through extracting the dye pigment from the erva mate and applying it to raw fibers, merging and manipulating can be done; a multifunctional community garden pavilion,
The Directors
empowering residents to take control of their food systems, promote sustainable waste management practices, and foster a sense of community resilience through innovative use of bio-materials derived from food waste, by Swathi Sudhakaran with her project “Hunts Point Harvest”; and “Painting Through Fibre” where Hattie Batstone went through the whole process of cleaning, dyeing, and felting wool naturally, through the mixture of different natural fibers and colors it is a representation of the combination of colonizers and Indigenous working hand in hand to provide unity and coexistence.
As a collaborative group, we are asking questions and, through reflection, continue to identify how to engage our students in exploratory critical thinking about our design practices and how we can apply this to advance our disciplines as responsible designers.
Michele Gorman, Yvette Chaparro, and Preeti Gopinath
(From left to right) MFA Directors Yvette Chaparro, Michele Gorman, and Preeti Gopinath
In this interdisciplinary course, encouraging the disciplines of Interior Design, Industrial Design, Textiles, and Architecture to come together, the concepts of decolonization and decarbonisation are used as a lens to explore thematics around materiality and its regenerative possibilities. Through experimentation and exploration, students will frame projects around new practices of making as part of a circular process of living. The thematics will be questioned and developed throughout the semester with the help of practical research and guest speakers. This class will be divided into two sections at the undergraduate and graduate levels, fostering a collaborative environment within academic levels and disciplines.
Setting the framework around decolonization and decarbonization, students, aided by readings, define the two concepts. We start by understanding decolonization, which involves opening the discourse to include new voices, relearning, and bringing indigenous practices and knowledge to the front.1 As for decarbonization, we incorporate carbon-negative practices when producing systems and objects of design.2 To accomplish this, we need to break down assumptions about design and how its practice is applied.3 Decarbonization requires the designer to decide where and how carbon is stored or released.4 With the basis of the two concepts, the designer’s responsibility is critical at both a socio-cultural level and a physical level.
Students go through an exploratory process, immersing themselves in a project of their interest. These projects can be interdisciplinary or specific to one design discipline. They are exposed to topics around decolonization and decarbonization and how they apply to design disciplines. They can choose to frame their project through the lens of food systems, regenerative materials, local processes, Indigenous practices, and knowledge.
Yvette Chaparro and Barent Roth
The presentation methods include recipe making and mingling. The project is explained through a recipe listing the required elements to be used and how. Students and visitors interact during these open sessions, walking around and discussing their projects with each other as students practice their story-telling. Documentation takes different forms depending on the project’s focus; in terms of sharing the results, the projects are all part of a shared digital booklet.
Yvette Chaparro
1 ED Tunstall, Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook. (MIT Press, 2023).
2 Michele Gorman, Yvette Chaparro, Preeti Gopinath, Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party, 2022.
3 C. McCurdy,“Decarbonizing Materials and Climate,” in A. Mears and J. Ruth (eds) Material Health: Design Frontiers (Lund Humphries, 2022), 100–107.
4 Ibid.
Victoria Speyer (left) and Luis Guzman (right)
(Top) Jonah Goodman (Bottom, from left to right) Preeti Gopinath, Michele Gorman, Barent Roth, and Leonardo Possati
(Top, from left to right) Jimena Bedoya, Luisa Mantelli, and Hattie Batstone (Bottom) Becca Bran and Nick Cuervo-Torello
Interior Food Ecologies
Situated at the intersection of the built environment, inequality, and environmental degradation, this MFA interior design studio explores the current complex and multi-scalar ecological crisis as it disproportionately affects people of color and low-income communities across the world. Acknowledging that design has actively contributed to this situation, this studio looks to reverse design’s complicity with environmental injustice by offering strategies of mitigation, restoration, and reconciliation—how can we respond sensitively as interiorists?
“Considering the complexity and global scale of the ecological crisis, we will focus on the developing food crisis—the United Nations predicts that by 2050, we will not be able to produce enough food to feed our growing global population. Around this crisis other issues conflate including industrial pollution, soil toxicity, carbon emissions, land dispossession, and sea-level rise. For the purpose of this studio, we will explore the food insecurity and environmental degradation taking place in three neighborhoods of New York City, each associated with a conceptual framework: South Bronx (reclamation), Chinatown (density), and Newtown Creek (toxicity). In these sites, the studio seeks to propose more equal, just, and nurturing futures through design, while supporting existing initiatives and activist groups.
Starting from their own backgrounds and contexts, students will explore and diagram the food ecologies they inhabit, identifying networks and conditions that define interiority/sense of belonging/domesticity. They will look at the different stages of food production—cultivation, distribution, storage, and
Maria Linares Trelles, Arianna Deane, Jennifer June
waste management—engaging with multiple scales (e.g., object, interior, urban, collective, planetary) and temporalities (e.g., agricultural or material cycles). Additionally, they will examine food interiors: kitchens, bodegas and delis, warehouses, and gardens as they intersect and expand domestic typologies toward alternative forms of dwelling (e.g., collective kitchens, cooperatives, mutual aid groups). Furthermore, this studio invites students to experiment with food
(From left to right) Srushti Mhaske, Xiaoxuan (Froy) Zhou, Nazakat Adigozalova, Khadeine Ali, faculty Maria Linares Trelles, visiting guest Benjamin Ross Goldner
processes and rituals—e.g., collective cooking, fermentation and composting—as research, making and design methodologies that foster community exchange and build interiority.
As students begin to develop their proposals, the studio invites them to defy capitalist approaches to professional project timelines, typically based on quick return on investment, by expanding a project’s life beyond its ideation and appearance in the construction site to consider other stages like the outsourcing of materials and labor, its maintenance and operation, or even future degradation. In this way, we seek to discuss the idea of “sustainability” over time. Moreover, this studio de-centers the human as it questions the hierarchical and oppositional relation with nature, seen as a resource to be extracted, which has led to the so-called Anthropocene. Instead, it recognizes humans as one of the multiple agents interacting in a complex network regulated but ecological exchanges and principles of conviviality and relationality. In this context, the studio tackles the environment from the interior—understood as negotiated through relations between humans, more-than-humans, institutions, and objects—as a spatial condition where alternative forms of living together can be imagined and practiced. Therefore, it asks interior designers to imagine nonextractive forms of production and consumption, social dynamics based on care and reciprocity, as well as consider the transcalar spatial and temporal condition of the ecological processes.
Finally, we will ask ourselves: How can interior design help us transition towards truly sustainable futures? How can interior design shape new forms of relationships with a rapidly-shifting environment? How can interior design empower communities of environmentally degraded areas? What does it mean to consider environmental justice from the standpoint of interior design?”
Michele Gorman
(Top left) Swathi Sudhakaran (Top right) Yitong (Lavender) Dai (Bottom, from left to right) Nazakat Adigozalova and Laraib Ali
Contributions
Mycelium Glass Tiles
Ana Stavarache (she/her)
BFA Integrated Design
For this recipe, I experimented with how glass waste binds to mycelium. I was curious in what ways it could be used to create tiles for interior design purposes.
Instructions:
1. Collect glass waste and disinfect to ensure it is free of any debris or contamination.
2. Use an airtight container that will help as a mold and space for mycelium to grow.
3. Create an even layer of the mushroom substrate and add the glass, experiment with its placement.
4. Poke holes into the airtight container and spray water once a day.
5. Monitor mycelium growth over the next week.
Oyster Shell Tiles
Becca Bran (she/her)
Master of Architecture
Nick Cuervo-Torello (he/him)
Master of Architecture
Prep time 2.5 mins
Cook time: 35 mins
Ingredients and supplies:
• Oyster shells
• Shuck knife
• Hammer
• Coffee grinder
• Sodium Hydroxide (40g)
Instructions:
Set time: weeks
Total time: weeks
• Water (250ml)
• Pot
• Container
• Mold
1. Crush oyster shells: Collect a sufficient quantity of oyster shells and rinse thoroughly. Use a hammer to crush the oyster shells into fine powder. Set some larger pieces aside.
2. Mix with aqueous sodium hydroxide: In a well-ventilated area, mix crushed oyster shells with aqueous sodium hydroxide (lye). Use caution as sodium hydroxide is caustic.
3. Boil out the water: Transfer mixture into a heat-resistant container and boil out remaining liquid. Continue boiling until you’re left with consistency of wet sand.
4. Mix with oyster shell aggregate: Combine the product with remaining crushed oyster shells to create the tile mixture. Thoroughly mix the components until they form a homogeneous blend.
5. Pour into a mold: Carefully pour the tile mixture into the mold, distributing it evenly to achieve uniform thickness. 6. Let sit undisturbed for three weeks: This duration allows for proper curing and strengthening of the tiles. Place the mold in a dry, well-ventilated area.
Glygel
Bhoomika Manjunath (she/her) MFA Interior Design
This project is an attempt to encapsulate time with the intention to expand into ephemerality in interiors but in urban realms as something that passes with time but stays as a memory. Glygel was developed as a reminiscence to celebrate the species at St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx.
Instructions:
1. Air dry tree barks, leaves and pine nuts for two weeks.
2. Pour water into a cooking pot and allow it to heat for two minutes.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of agar-agar and 1 tablespoon of glycerin. Keep stirring as it starts to thicken. Make sure that there are no lumps.
4. Once the mix thickens, pour the mix into a mold of desired shape. Make sure the mold is clean and add the bark of trees and leaves.
5. Leave the mold to dry for four days. Make sure to keep the mold in an environment that has more heat.
Starchy Sheets
Bhoomika Prasad (she/her)
MFA Textiles Design
Handmade paper is exclusively crafted from 100% recycled nonwood materials. Its production reduces energy consumption by 50% and water usage by 75% compared to machine-made paper.
Ingredients and supplies:
• Old paper bags, rags, clothes
• Raw spices (optional)
• Corn starch
• All purpose flour
• Vinegar
Instructions:
• Bamboo shoot collagen powder
• Paper making mould
• Tub
• Citric acid
1. Cut/shred old rags and paper bags into tiny pieces; soak them in water for at least three days.
2. Blend soaked ingredients in a blender until you achieve a pulp-like consistency.
3. Boil pulp for ten minutes. Then, add 1 tablespoon of citric acid and 50ml of vinegar.
4. Take a portion of the pulp in a medium-sized bowl and incorporate 1 tablespoon of collagen powder, mixing thoroughly. For paper with a soft and sturdy texture, combine cornstarch and all-purpose flour:
For a rough texture, use 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. For soft but firm texture, use 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. For strong and sturdy texture, incorporate 1 tablespoon of collagen powder.
5. Pour pulp into a medium-sized tub. Use your mould to collect the pulp on it evenly, then leave it to dry.
6. Once dried, carefully remove the paper from the mould.
Playing with Trash
Chiziterem Maduka (she/her)
MFA Interior Design
My materials experimentation collection is a playful response to the issue of food and packaging waste, focusing on repurposing glass and eggshells into innovative materials.
Through the creation of bioplastic and various glass samples that mimic processed glass, I aim to inspire individuals to engage in hands-on experimentation with household waste. Through these accessible and enjoyable projects that can be carried out at home, the goal is to promote sustainability and reduce reliance on industrial recycling processes, empowering individuals to creatively address environmental challenges in their everyday lives.
NoiseNest
Esra Eyüboğlu (she/her)
MFA Interior Design
The focus of this project is to explore the potential of repurposed cardboard as an effective sound insulation material for dense urban environments, specifically focusing on the Chinatown neighborhood under the Manhattan Bridge in New York City.
The context contrasts the highly dense residential areas and the abandoned, secluded space directly underneath the bridge. Despite this seclusion, the area is subject to deafening noise from the passing train above, creating a significant disturbance for the nearby residents and pedestrians. The project delves into the material properties and performance of repurposed cardboard, leveraging acoustic engineering principles, sustainable design, and urban planning. The goal is to develop a modular sound insulation product that can effectively mitigate noise pollution while utilizing locally available waste material.
The material research involves cutting cardboard into small pieces, softening it through soaking, and blending it into a pulp. This cardboard pulp is combined with a binding agent (wheat or rice paste). Once dried, the resulting material exhibits the following properties: It is rigid, lightweight, and demonstrates excellent acoustic performance, dampening the noise of passing trains above the Manhattan Bridge.
A beeswax coating is applied to ensure the material is waterproof and suitable for outdoor use. The beeswax is heated in the oven; then, the cardboard material is dipped into the melted wax. By leveraging locally available waste materials, such as the abundant cardboard boxes from Chinatown businesses, and incorporating beeswax waterproofing, this materialdriven approach offers a sustainable and communityengaged solution to the issue of urban noise pollution.
Painting Through Fiber
Hattie Batstone (she/her)
MFA Textiles Design
This project is a large felted piece that uses various different wool and a time consuming process, created over a period of time slowly adding more layers. This piece represents a landscape and through the tactility, colour and layering of hand knits the aim is to allow the viewer to be present with the piece, associating it with what inspires them and allowing a meditative moment where one can reconnect with nature and landscape and forget about the outside world for a while. The mixture of different natural fibres and colours is a representation of the combination of colonizers and indigenous working hand in hand together providing unity and coexistence.
Techniques:
Needle Felt
Wet Felt
Hand knit
Machine knit
Silk painting
Ingredients:
Mohair fiber
Jacob wool
Shetland wool
Merino wool
Silk fibrer
Silk fabric
Bio-Amend
Jimena Bedoya (she/her)
MFA Textiles Design
My concept addresses decarbonization by repairing the world of all the harm we have caused, as the Japanese term kintsugi means repairing broken pottery, transforming it into something new. Biomaterials play a pivotal role in decarbonization by offering sustainable alternatives to traditional materials. I am addressing decolonization by settling pieces on top of others, as happens with migration when people are forced to move from their land. People are looking for new places to settle and recreate their homes. Holes are left as a representation of adapting to new ways of living. Addressing positivity and beauty in a world full of harmony. Coexistence and respect. Amendments and new relationships with the earth and community.
Create a knitted piece with naturally dyed wool: place waste flowers from the Lake pigment production flat in a container. Pour the Biomaterial on top. You will obtain a gelatine-like surface, let it dry for one week.
Ingredients:
Mordant - Aluminium Triformate Materials - Natural Silk, Washed wool, Dyes - Fustic + Iron Use Aluminium Triformate and mix with water; place your material and dry it overnight. Dip material for 1 min in the Indigo vat at 110*F + rinse. Add 10% of the fustic, sink for 1 hour on heat and overnight off heat. Dry for 2 days.
Bio-film:
Cold water, 235 ml
Agar Agar, 17.5 g
Glyserol, 10.5 ml
Procedure: simmer water, add agar and glycerol, bring to a boil, stir until it dissolves, pour. Dry for 2 days.
Once you have all your materials ready, sew everything together with a gold yarn to create a container.
Modern.Culture
Jonah Goodman (he/him)
MFA Industrial Design
At Modern.Culture, we believe in reconnecting with the essence of our humanity, and crafting a better tomorrow. We do this by harnessing the transformative power of fermentation to craft unique products that inspire curiosity and ignite the senses; a desire to rediscover and embrace qualities and values of being human. Through our commitment to tradition and innovation, we aim to inspire the transformative power of fermentation and its profound impact on our health, culture, and planet.
Kombucha, originating in Northeast China or Manchuria around 220 BCE, has a rich history steeped in tradition and culture. Initially known as “kōcha kinoko” in Japan, which translates to “tea fungus” or “tea mushroom,” it quickly spread across Asia and Europe, captivating diverse palates with its distinct flavor and potential health benefits. At Modern.Culture, we pay homage to this ancient tradition by crafting locally sourced Green Tea and Black Tea kombuchas. Each batch is meticulously brewed to honor the legacy of Kombucha fermentation while infusing local organic produce, resulting in a symphony of flavors that stimulates the taste buds and nourish the body. With our kombucha offerings, we invite you to embark on a journey through time and culture, savoring the essence of tradition while embracing the promise of a healthier tomorrow.
Black Tea Kombucha
Ingredients:
• rosemary
• honeycrisp apple
Aged: 15 days
Bottled: New York City
Size: 3 fl.oz.
Green Tea Kombucha
Ingredients:
• lavender
• pink lady apple
Aged: 15 days
Bottled: New York City
Size: 3 fl.oz.
Flip Flops That Keep On
Giving Kailey Bain (she/her)
BFA Interior Design
Warm weather calls for flip flops and lush landscapes. What better way to incorporate both? Creating flip flops with sustainable materials and embedding them with seeds to disperse as they are worn is one step to achieving a chance for more greenery.
The immediate impression you leave behind are the words “grow” and “green” after you step onto soft ground. The long lasting impact are the seeds that disperse and grow after.
Ingredients:
• Natural Cork
• Polaris
• Kombucha leather
• Native seeds
Khadeine Ali (she/her)
MFA Interior Design
“The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.” — Chief Seattle
In our era of excess consumption, we often overlook the extraordinary potential of everyday items to benefit both humanity and our planet. This dinner party place setting, titled Terra, reimagines common waste materials as elements of sustainable beauty. At its heart lies an eggshell bio-ceramic platter, transforming a humble kitchen discard into an elegant serving surface while harnessing eggshells’ natural ability to absorb atmospheric toxins through their high calcium carbonate content.
Accompanying the platter, an upcycled jar containing natural dye crafted from avocado pits and shells rests on a handmade coaster blending lime plaster with crushed eggshells. This coaster represents the project’s foundational research into calcium carbonate’s environmental applications, bringing the experimentation process directly to the table. Nature joins the dinner party through a bowl sculpted from coconut fiber husk cradling living moss. The moss spreads organically across the tablescape, weaving between vessels and plates in a visual metaphor for the intricate relationship between human creation and natural growth. This intentional intermingling suggests a future where design and nature exist not in opposition but in harmony.
Beyond its aesthetic appeal, Terra’s innovative use of materials actively benefits our environment. The setting diverts materials from landfills and incinerators by repurposing food waste into functional art, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, incorporating moss and calcium carbonate-rich elements actively purifies the surrounding air, creating a dining experience that refreshes space and spirit.
Living Liner
Laraib Ali (she/her)
MFA Interior Design
This liner acts as a table mat with a dinner set. It is made with paper and fabric mache, growing moss, sprouts, and wild grass.
Crickers
Leonardo Possati (he/him)
MFA Industrial Design
In contemporary society, approximately 2 billion individuals regularly incorporate insects into their diets, particularly prevalent in Eastern regions. Crickets, among the most widespread edible insects, stand out for their abundant protein content and remarkable environmental efficiency. They contain nearly three times the protein density of meat per equivalent weight. Crickets exhibit a notable efficiency in converting feed into protein, necessitating less feed and water compared to conventional livestock to yield equivalent protein quantities. For instance, the production of protein from crickets requires six times less feed than that from cows. This underscores their potential as a sustainable protein source. “Crickers” represent a culinary innovation: a type of salty, protein-rich cracker infused with traditional italian flavors. Simple ingredients such as Parmesan cheese, Pecorino cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and italian seasoned salt contribute to their distinctive taste profile.
Litian Li (he/him)
MFA Industrial Design
RiceMi is an innovative project that explores the use of biomaterials, specifically rice and paper, to create sustainable and functional acoustic panels.
Inspired by the ancient use of sticky rice mortar in the Great Wall of China, which demonstrated remarkable adhesive strength, sturdiness, waterproofing capability, and weed prevention, RiceMi aims to harness similar properties for modern applications.
Coconut Acoustic
Product
Luis Guzman (he/him)
Master of Architecture
Architecture is constantly evolving to create a sustainable future, reducing CO2 emissions and embodied carbon to help mitigate global warming. In this process, it is important that we decolonize the materials that we use. I closely examined the type of adhesives that companies use when making coconut fiber products, which is not sustainable. I created a natural glue product as a replacement. This was then used to create a coconut fiber acoustic panel.
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
Natural glue, instructions:
1. In a saucepan, mix all ingredients. Stir for 2 minutes. 2. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.
3. Turn off heat, and continue mixing until it turns translucent.
Coconut fiber mold, instructions:
1. Cut baltic birch plywood to create mold.
2. Wash your coconut fiber with water.
3. Fill mold with coconut fiber and add your natural glue.
4. Put cap on and secure with clamps.
5. Wait 24 hours before opening the mold.
Merging and Manipulating Erva Mate
Luisa Mantelli (she/her)
MFA Textiles Design
Chimarrão is a caffeinated drink made from erva mate and hot water in a gourd, drank with a special straw called bomba. Centuries before Spanish and Portuguese colonization, it was consumed by the Guaraní people who lived in the region that today is the South of Brazil, Paraguay, the north of Argentina, and parts of Uruguay and Bolivia. It is a culture that merged with the colonizers’ and created a new identity for the gauchos, who live in these areas in South America. By merging and manipulating the erva mate, we can extract dye pigment, apply it to raw fibers and create textiles. Textiles can be repurposed and reimagined, by changing the way they are displayed and organized. They are impermanent by essence and, by being crafted, can metamorphose into a completely new piece.
Ingredients and supplies:
• used erva mate of four chimarrões
• hot water (60–70˚C)
• wool fiber
Instructions:
• silk fabric
• cotton yarn
• 1 tbsp calcium carbonate
• needle and/or hook
1. Add the erva mate and the calcium carbonate to a pan. The more you add, the deeper the color.
2. Add 1L of water, bring to a boil for 15 minutes.
3. Allow it to cool for a few minutes.
4. Add the wool, cotton, and silk, and let it soak for 24 hours.
5. Remove the wool, cotton, and silk, rinse, and let dry naturally.
6. Create a textile with the raw material, expressing your creativity with the colors from erva mate. Find ways of explaining the origins and the importance of Chimarrão, for people who do not know it.
Upcycling Nature
Nazakat Adigozalova (she/her)
MFA Interior Design
London plane tree fruits are a resource that is often overlooked. By combining these fruits with natural ingredients such as wheat paste, gelatin, glycerol, and water, I have developed two unique biomaterial formulations that showcase the regenerative potential of organic waste.
Option 1 utilizes a mixture of London plane tree fruit, wheat paste, and water, while Option 2 incorporates gelatin and glycerol alongside the fruit and water. These ingredients work together to create versatile, ecofriendly biomaterials that can be molded and shaped into various forms, such as outdoor screens or panels.
The primary goal of this project is to give a second life to the tree fruits, transforming them from waste into valuable, sustainable materials. By doing so, we not only reduce the amount of organic matter that ends up in landfills but also create new opportunities for ecoconscious design and construction.
These biomaterials degrade naturally under outdoor conditions, such as exposure to rain. As the materials break down, they release the embedded seeds from the London plane tree fruits, providing a nutritious food source for local wildlife. This regenerative cycle demonstrates the potential for design solutions that actively contribute to the ecosystem and support biodiversity.
By showcasing the potential of London plane tree fruits as a viable resource for biomaterial production, I hope to inspire others to explore the regenerative possibilities that lie within our local environments and to embrace a more holistic, eco-conscious approach to design and manufacturing.
DIY Beeswax
WRAP+RAIN
Nilsu Acar (she/her) Master of Architecture
You can easily use your beeswax bags instead of plastic to take your solid foods to work and school.
The beeswaxing process should be repeated at intervals of 10–20 uses, for example, depending on your own satisfaction and usage interval.
Foods to be placed in beeswax should be at room temperature or colder. The packages may be unusable as the beeswax will melt at high temperatures.
You can wash your beeswax bags with organic natural soap to clean them after use. You should also be careful to use cold water when washing.
The use of environmentally friendly alternatives like beeswax wraps can help reduce plastic usage and thus decrease carbon footprint. Plastic production and usage contribute to fossil fuel consumption and hence greenhouse gas emissions. Products made from natural materials like beeswax wraps can reduce these emissions by reducing the use of plastic packaging.
In some cases, industrial farming and trade practices may have suppressed traditional knowledge and practices or harmed the resources of local communities. However, products like beeswax wraps, which are locally handmade from natural materials, rely on the knowledge and skills of local communities and can provide economic benefits to them. The use of such products can empower local communities and help them control their own resources, thereby contributing to the decolonization process.
Staghorn Sumac Dye
Rachel Dana (she/her)
MFA Textiles Design
The clear tannins in Staghorn Sumac leaves make it an important plant for mordanting cellulose fibers. Tannins help bind plant dyes to cellulose fiber, and the clear tannins help maintain a bright color. There are few clear tannin options: Gallnuts, which grow on oak trees, Sumac leaves, and Tara seed pods (Caesalpinia tinctoria) which are native to South America.
Gallotannins can also become black dyes when iron is added. Sumac leaves were used by Native Americans to produce strong greys and blacks. The Sumac berry is so acidic that the dye color starts as pink, but when washed with soda after dyeing, the color will turn green-blue. The pink and blue come from Anthocyanin dye compounds and are fugitive, meaning they fade quickly. But since the berries are so high in tannins, a light brown shade remains and that will not fade.
Ingredients:
• 3g of dried Staghorn Sumac leaves
• 25 mL hot water
Instructions:
1. Let steep for six days; mold forming on top helps to extract the gallic tannic acid. Strain through coffee filter, squeezing out all excess from plant material.
2. Divide 25 mL very hot water in two pots. Stir 3g ferrous sulfate into one pot; shake 3g gum arabic in the other to dissolve. Let sit for an hour, until gum arabic is dissolved.
3. Add the gum arabic solution to the sumac solution and stir well. Gently stir in the iron solution. Test immediately, and test in a day, week, month. As oxygen slowly enters the ink it will precipitate and lose its permanence. The black ink will sit on top of the paper instead of forming crystals within.
Earthing Interiority
Shreya Dwivedi (she/her) MFA Interior Design
Reimagining Urban Domesticity Using Locally Foraged Materials
Globalization has blurred the line separating local and global, and spaces, regardless of their geographical origin, look and are experienced similarly. This results in sameness and placelessness, causing alienation from local culture, traditions, and unique contexts. At a time when it’s fairly easy to move around and find “home” in different cultural contexts, how can we cultivate a sense of belonging and connection to the land? Rooted in the traditional Indian practice of using regional, naturally occurring ingredients in building materials to foster a connection with the land, this project proposes a framework for interior design practice. It centers around place-based material and spatial design choices grounded in the hyperlocal context to counteract this placelessness.
Moving away from colonial extractive methods, the framework advocates using locally foraged materials to design site-specific interiors within standardized urban dwellings in New York. By incorporating materials such as seaweed, oyster shells, moss, and driftwood, the project aims to reintegrate humans into a larger ecological network, fostering both social and ecological connections. Through everyday interactions inhabitants forge a symbiotic relationship of care and reciprocity, cultivating an understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things. Emphasizing the interior as a living ecosystem, where foraged materials are active participants, not passive components, this approach of cohabiting seeks to imbue domestic environments with a sense of grounding for those dwelling within these otherwise impersonal placeless domestic environments.1
1 S. Dwivedi, S. Earthing Interiority: Reimagining urban domesticity using locally foraged materials (2024) Accessed at: https://thisismold.com/space/interiors/earthing-interiority (Accessed: 15 December 2024).
Hunts Point Harvest
Swathi Sudhakaran (she/her)
MFA Interior Design
Cultivating Community, Sustainability, and Resilience
Hunts Point Harvest is a community-driven project that addresses food insecurity, environmental degradation, and social inequity in the Bronx, New York. By establishing a multifunctional community garden pavilion, the project empowers residents to take control of their food systems, promote sustainable waste management practices, and foster a sense of community resilience through innovative use of biomaterials derived from food waste.
Vani Jayasankar (she/her)
MS Strategic Design and Management
To revolutionise access to ideas and technology, to support people in need for knowledge on circular use of food and other waste through collaboration and innovation to create a better system.
Exchanges can be a user testing platform for your products, extra food/groceries you may have at home, connect you to a bigger community with the same goals!
Dying to Dye
Veronica Speyer (she/her)
BFA Product Design
Climate change is the largest threat to humankind (and countless other life forms today. Mitigating the crisis will require a paradigm shift in the way we understand current systems, and in the way we design systems that revolve around sustainability. As designers, we are enormously responsible for ensuring that the products we release into the world are designed within a circular economy model; 80% of environmental impacts occur in the design phase. However, it is also important to understand the factors that contribute to climate change that designers are not entirely responsible for, such as the factory farming industry.
The animal agriculture industry is responsible for 50% of the world’s second hand greenhouse gases. Animals in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) are forced to live under unimaginably cruel conditions, in order to yield as much animal product for the market as possible, as efficiently as possible. The waste produced by CAFO’s pollutes nearby waterstreams, thereby destroying natural habitats, decimating the land, and endangering the lives of factory workers and nearby residents.
The animal agriculture industry is incredibly complicated, and understanding it is made even more difficult by the deliberate withholding of information from the public, by the corporate heads of the industry. Reducing our consumption of animal products, cow in particular, would significantly improve the situation.
Chromatic Harmony
Weniz Wills (she/her)
MFA
Interior Design
Unveiling the Potential of Natural Food Dyes in Sustainable Textiles
“Chromatic Harmony” embodies a comprehensive exploration of natural food dyes and mordanting techniques within the realm of sustainable textile production. Through meticulous experimentation using sources such as turmeric, beetroot scraps, onion peel, and spinach, unveiling a diverse spectrum of vibrant colors while prioritizing eco-friendly practices. By integrating mordanting techniques into the dyeing process, helped in expanding the range of achievable shades and intensities. This project advocates for a significant shift towards healthier and more sustainable textile choices and dyeing techniques, promoting a harmonious balance between aesthetics, functionality, and ecological responsibility.
The Indigenous Menu
App
Yuda Li (he/him)
BFA
Product Design
This project is an educational cooking app called The Indigenous Menu: A Journey through American Indigenous Lands, People, and Cuisine
It’s designed to celebrate and explore indigenous cultures, lands, and traditional foods. Additionally, it promotes a lifestyle focused on sustainability and social justice by embracing decarbonized and decolonized practices.
The app contains features as Food Map, Indigenous educational information, Food Material list, Material waste guide, Nutritional information, etc
Zineng Yuan (he/him)
MFA Interior Design
Make eco-friendly bricks from old newspapers, water, and leftover coffee grounds. Cut the newspapers into small pieces and place them in a container filled with hot water. Let the mixture sit for a few hours. Add coffee grounds for binding and aroma, then thoroughly mix. Use a tool to compress the wet pulp into brick shapes. Allow the bricks to dry for several days, or speed up the process by placing them on top of a heater (be careful not to overheat). Once fully dry, your recycled newspaper bricks, with a hint of coffee smell, are ready to use.
Dinner Party
On 20 April 2024, our community of the Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party met at Governor’s Island to celebrate Earth Day. Barent Roth was again our host at the Circular Economy Manufacturing Microfactory site. We set up tables with white tablecloths, and students set up their projects as offerings for the dinner party. Our table was double the size of the one at the previous dinner party in 2023.
The students spoke amongst themselves, sharing their experiences and details about their projects as they set up. They later gathered around the table and listened to the land acknowledgement to the Lenape community and their elders, past and present, read by the MFA Directors Michele Gorman and Yvette Chaparro.
The participants framed their offerings through recipes as in the past dinner parties. (Gorman, Chaparro, and Gopinath, 2022, 2024) With artefacts and explorations of material exploration. Each Dinner Party participant presented their recipes to the community, which they developed around the thematics of food systems, food ecologies, regenerative material practices, local processes, and Indigenous knowledge.
We want to extend our thanks to Barent Roth, who participated as one of the faculty of the Decolonized Decarbonized Dinner Party elective and host of the site; Martin Seck, who took wonderful photos; and our visitors, friends, and family members, all part of our community that continues to expand.
(Top row, left to right): Chiziterem Maduka, Luis Guzman, Zineng Yuan, Barent Roth, Michele Gorman, Yvette Chaparro, Litian Li, Jonah Goodman, Ana Stavarache, Yuda Li, Veronica Speyer, Leonardo Possati, Nilsu Acar, Khadeine Ali, Swathi Sudhakaran.
(Bottom row, left to right): Alicia Tam Wei, Naza Adigozalova, Arianna Deane, Rachel Dana, Luisa Mantelli, Jimena Bedoya, Bhoomika Manjunath, Nick Cuervo-Torello, Becca Bran, Shreya Dwivedi
(Bottom, left to right): Chiziterem Maduka and Bhoomika Manjunath
Participants
Ana Stavarache
Becca Bran + Nick Cuervo-Torello
Bhoomika Manjunath
Bhoomika Prasad
Chiziterem Maduka
Esra Eyuboglu
Jimena Bedoya
Jonah Goodman
Khadeine Ali
Laraib Ali
Leonardo Possati
Litian Li
Luis Guzman
Luisa Mantelli
Maksud Malik-Aslanov
Nazakat Adigozalova
Nilsu Acar
Rachel Dana
Shreya Dwivedi
Swathi Sudhakaran
Vani Jayasankar
Veronica Speyer
Weniz Wills
Yuda Li
Zineng Yuan
Dinner Party at Governors Island on Earth Day 2024.
(Left to right) Madhu Palanivel, Ha Yeon Kim, Chiziterem Maduka, Swathi Sudhakaran, Bhoomika Manjunath, Zineng Yuan, Leonardo Possati, Nilsu Acar
(Top) Luisa Mantelli vessel (Bottom, left to right) Barent Roth, Michele Gorman, Yvette Chaparro
(Top) Dinner Party at the Circular Economy Manufacturing microfactory; (Bottom, left to right) Swathi Sudhakaran, Bhoomika Manjunath, Chiziterem Maduka, and Khadeine Ali
scan
Photogrammetry
of the Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party Exhibition
Bhoomika Manjunath
Litian Li
Becca Bran and Nick Cuervo-Torello
Bhoomika Manjunath
Zineng Yuan
Khadeine Ali
Litian Li
Ana Stavarache
Maksud Malik-Aslamanov
Jonah Goodman
Veronica Speyer
Shreya Dwivedi
Chiziterem Maduka
Leonardo Possati
Aneri Shah
Swathi Sudhakaran
Decoloniality & Decarbonizing Resources
Delport, H., Morkel, J., Gorman, M., and Burton, L.O. (2023) “Design Studios for Sustainable Cities and Communities: A Radically Inclusive Perspective,” in Ike, O., Ekué, A., Singh, D., & Usher, J. (eds.) Leading Ethical Leaders: Higher Education, Business Schools and the Sustainable Development Goals Globalethics Publications, pp. 451–519. (For the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: sustainable cities and communities)
Dwivedi, S. (2024) Earthing Interiority: Reimagining urban domesticity using locally foraged materials. Accessed at: https://thisismold.com/space/ interiors/earthing-interiority (Accessed: 15 December 2024).
Gorman, M., Chaparro, Y. and Gopinath, P. (2022) A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party. New York: Parsons / The New School.
Gorman, M., Chaparro, Y. and Gopinath, P. (2024) A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party. New York: Parsons / The New School.
Gorman, M., Morkel, J., Delport, H., and Burton, L.O. (2021) “The Radically Inclusive Studio: An open access conversation on radically inclusive practices in the architectural design studio,” in Salama, A., Harriss, H., and Gonzalez Lara, A. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South. New York, NY: Routledge.
McCurdy, C. (2022) ‘Decarbonizing Materials and Climate’, in A. Mears and J. Ruth (eds) Material Health: Design Frontiers. London: Lund Humphries, pp. 100–107.
Mears, A. and Ruth, J. (eds) (2022) Material Health / Design Frontiers. London: Lund Humphries.
Rubin, J. (2024) ‘A Moveable Feast’, Re:D The Magazine of Parsons School of Design, pp. 12–15.
Rubin, J. (2023) Decentering the Design Canon, Parsons web site [A Decolonized and Decarbonized Dinner Party project]
Schlottmann, C. and Sebo, J. (2019) Food, Animals, and the Environment: An ethical approach. New York, NY: Routledge.
Tunstall, E. (Dori) (2023) Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook Cambridge, MA London, England: MIT Press.
A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party books at the Governor’s Island Earth Day celebration 2024.
Community
Ana Stavarache (she/her)
is a BFA Integrated Design with a specialization in Architecture student at Parsons.
Arianna Deane (she/her)
is an MFA Interior Design Faculty an architect and educator living in New York City. In 2018 she co-founded A+A+A - a multidisciplinary design studio committed to making places more inclusive, collaborative, and joyful. Working at all scales, the studio creates thoughtfully-designed objects, experiences, and spaces. A+A+A’s process prioritizes building a radically inclusive way of working where every project starts and ends with those who are directly affected.
Barent Roth (he/him)
is the director and co-founder of Circular Economy Manufacturing, a designer, educator, activist, and now entrepreneur dedicated to creating and teaching the importance of regenerative practices. An design educator for nearly 30 years, he now serves as the Director of the Product Design program at Parsons, The New School in New York City. In addition to educating/advocating about the urgency to transition to a Circular Economy, he works to continuously improve his own personal impact by supporting sustainable businesses and cooperatives, purchasing renewable energy, and enjoying a vegan lifestyle. In 2019, his design consultancy was selected as a winner of the NYC Curb-to-Market Challenge asking for ideas to turn New York City’s waste into products. This award enabled the launch of Circular Economy Manufacturing and the assembly of their first 100% solar powered MicroFactory now operating on Governors Island, recycling single use plastic into well designed durable products.
Becca Bran (she/her) is an alumna from the MArch program at Parsons.
Bhoomika Manjunath (she/her)
is currently pursuing an MFA in Interior Design. Having a background in Architecture from India, her research interest
lies in sensory design. To be more precise , it mainly focuses on shaping up experiences for people with sensory disabilities not only in terms of Interior but also the exterior aspects in the public domain.
Bhoomika Prasad (she/her) is an MFA Textiles Design student at Parsons.
Chiziterem Maduka (she/her) is an MFA Interior Design student at Parsons.
Esra Eyüboğlu (she/her) is an MFA Interior Design student at Parsons.
Hattie Batstone (she/her) is an MFA Textiles Design student at Parsons.
Jennifer June (she/her)
is a multi-disciplinary designer whose work weaves together materiality, sustainability, and human-centered design. As founder of Loose Parts, she crafts furniture and objects that embody circular design principles—prioritizing disassembly, repair, reuse, and recycling of materials. June’s design practice extends beyond product creation. She is an interior and lighting designer who has shaped residential spaces and boutique hospitality environments with her distinct aesthetic vision. Additionally, June is an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design, teaching principles of circular and sustainable practices in the MFA School of Constructed Environments. Her work has been shown in Business of Home, Domino, Dwell, Metropolis among other publications. As well as Alcova Milano, the Newark Museum, NYCxDesign and WantedDesign. She is based in Hudson, New York.
Jimena Bedoya (she/her) is an MFA Textiles Design student at Parsons.
Jonah Goodman (he/him)
is an MFA Industrial Designer pursuing a graduate degree at Parsons School of Design. With an innate curiosity and a
keen eye for detail, he seeks to push the limits of conventional design, crafting products and experiences that captivate the imagination and ignite the senses.
Julia van den Hout (she/her) is an architecture and design writer, editor, and curator. She is the principal of Original Copy and series editor and designer of the Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party books.
Kailey Bain (she/her) is a BFA Interior Design student at Parsons.
Khadeine Ali (she/her) is pursuing an MFA in Interior Design at Parsons School of Design. She holds a BFA in Interior Design from Savannah College of Art and Design and a Master’s in Sustainable Business from the University of Miami. Khadeine is deeply committed to creating spaces grounded in social and environmental responsibility, honoring peoples’ histories and the vernacular. Her portfolio includes cruise ship, themed entertainment, and commercial design sectors.
Laraib Ali (she/her) is an MFA Interior Design student at Parsons.
Leonardo Possati (he/him) is a product designer currently pursuing his MFA in Industrial Design at Parsons School of Design. With a deep passion for innovation, his work explores the intersection between present-day challenges and future possibilities by combining functionality, aesthetics and advanced production methods.
Litian Li (he/him) who moved to the US over ten years ago from China, has a unique approach to design that marries traditional cultural heritage with cutting-edge technology. Although he didn’t begin his design career in China, his work is heavily inspired by his roots, reflecting a deep respect for historical craftsmanship while embracing modern innovation. Li is dedicated to integrating these worlds in his designs, believing that historical elements can significantly enrich contemporary creations.
Luis Guzman (he/him) is an MArch student at Parsons.
Luisa Mantelli (she/her)
is a Brazilian artist, enrolled in the MFA Textiles program at Parsons. Her work is related to the land, the space, and the environment, through upcycled and sustainable materials.
Maksud Malik-Asianov (he/him)
is an alum from the BFA Architecture program at Parsons.
Maria Linares Trelles (she/her)
is a DC and New York-based architect working across design, research, and curatorial practices. Her work examines the sociopolitical forces shaping the built environment, focusing on design’s complicit role in constructing sites of extraction.
Martin Seck (he/him)
is a visual artist, freelance commercial photographer, and educator based in New York City. He has completed numerous editorial, portrait, product design, and architectural photography projects for clients such as the MoMA, The New School, Pentagram Design, the Prospect Park Alliance, and Etsy.
Michele Gorman (she/they)
is a co-founder of the Radically Inclusive Studio and is the Director of the Masters of Fine Arts Interior Design (MFA ID) program at Parsons School of Design, she provides leadership and vision on radically inclusive interior design pedagogy, curriculum, and ethical approaches to emerging digital technologies in the built environment. Within the School of Constructed Environments (SCE), she articulates the progressive mission, values, and vision for the MFA ID program and leads the recruitment of students and faculty, ongoing curriculum assessment, curricular development, and student-centered MFA ID Roundtables on emerging research intersecting interior design and EISJ+ (Equity, Inclusion, Social, and Environmental Justice). Michele builds a diverse and supportive community environment for approximately 60 graduate students from over 24 countries.
Nazakat Adigozalova (she/her) is an MFA Interior Design student at Parsons
Nick Cuervo-Torello (he/him) is an alumnus of the MArch program at Parsons.
Nilsu Acar (she/her) is an alumna of the MArch program at Parsons.
Preeti Gopinath (she/her)
is Associate Professor of Textiles in the School of Fashion and founding Director of the Textiles MFA program at Parsons, The New School, in New York. A graduate of the National Institute of Design (India), Preeti is an internationally experienced textile designer, craft researcher and an acclaimed educator with 30 years of international experience in both the industry and the classroom. She works closely with her talented, multidisciplinary faculty team to mentor students in the creation of groundbreaking and world changing textiles at Parsons, where her students combine artistry and craft with technology to develop innovative hybrid textiles that authentically address issues of sustainability through handson making. As a leader in the world of craft, Preeti serves as the Board Chair of the American Craft Council.
Rachel Dana (she/her) is an MFA Textiles Design student at Parsons.
Shreya Dwivedi (she/her)
is a designer working at the intersection of architecture, interior design, and material research. In her design practice, she advocates for bioregionalism, leveraging locally sourced natural and waste materials to advance circular and regenerative practices. Weaving craft and technology, Shreya is passionate about developing an approach that is deeply connected to place.
Swathi Sudhakaran (she/her) is currently pursuing an MFA in Interior Design. She has an undergraduate degree in Architecture from India. Materials and colours are her interest subsets in the field. She also has a passion for Photography. Swathi has worked as a project architect before her Masters and loves hands-on work, therefore being placed mainly on site.
Vani Jayasankar (she/her) is an MS Strategic Design and Management student at Parsons.
Veronica Speyer (she/her) is a BFA Product Design student at Parsons.
Weniz Wills (she/her) is an MFA Interior Design student at Parsons.
Yuda Li (she/her) is a BFA Product Design student at Parsons.
Yvette Chaparro (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Product and Industrial Design at Parsons, teaching in the MFA Industrial Design and BFA Product Design programs within the School of Constructed Environments. She is a practicing Industrial Designer at Yvette Chaparro Studio and is currently a PhD candidate at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
Zineng Yuan (he/him) is an MFA Interior Design student at Parsons. He has a BFA Fine Art from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, coming from Guangzhou, China.
Program Overviews
The MFA Industrial Design program prepares students to negotiate the seemingly contradictory forces at play in the growing product design industry. They explore the way goods can be produced in both localized contexts (a “making in place” approach, which relies on regionalized needs and constraints) and globalized contexts (employing design principles focusing on universal needs). Students combine advanced making skills with critical inquiry and hone their skills using Parsons’ state-of-the-art product prototyping and testing facilities.
The MFA Interior Design program at Parsons is a dynamic hub of creativity in New York, where our multicultural, crossdisciplinary community of makers and designers engages in a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives through handson textiles making. Nurturing authenticity, originality, and innovation, we channel the power of textiles to transform art, design, and industry and raise awareness on a range of societal and environmental issues. In our research and textiles practices, we blur the boundaries between craft and high-tech and address sustainability, justice, well-being, and beauty in the world through our work.
The MFA Textiles program at Parsons is a community of makers, designers, and scholars exploring and creating textiles—from locally crafted materials to 3D knitted matter to hand-embellished fabrics—and introducing innovation in textile-based industries and theory. Students investigate these dynamics, dissolving the boundaries between technology and craft. In the process, they prepare for the growing array of creative and professional opportunities related to textiles in fashion design, product design, interior design, textiles research, set design, fine arts, architecture, and hybrid fields.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the extended contributions to this book, which reflects community through interdisciplinary collaboration at Parsons. We hope to continue working together, inspiring students and colleagues as we ask questions and work together to address climate justice as a community.
We thank all students, staff, faculty, and guests who participated in the third Decolonized and Decarbonized Dinner Party and the classes represented through students and projects: The Interior Food Ecologies Class (MFA Interior Design) and the Decolonized, Decarbonized Dinner Party elective (SCE). Maria Linares Trelles, Arianna Deane, Jennifer June, and Barent Roth.
Thank you to Barent Roth for inviting us to hold our Dinner Party during the Governor’s Island Earth Day celebration at The Circular Economy Manufacturing and to Martin Seck for the wonderful photography.
We want to express our appreciation to the Parsons Executive Dean, Yvonne Watson, the School of Fashion Dean, Ben Barry, PhD, and the School of Constructed Environments Dean, David Lewis, for their constant support in our interdisciplinary knowledge sharing.
Moreover, we thank Parsons School of Design’s School of Constructed Environments, the School of Fashion, The SCE School Funds, and Parsons Cross-School Funds that supported launching the dinner party and this book.