Barbara Gollackner transforms food waste into design homeware

Viennese designer Barbara Gollackner has created a collection of abstract homeware items made from industrial and personal food waste.

Ever considered that your food waste bin could be a treasure trove for abstract design materials… no? Fair enough.

As part of an emerging and quirky artistic category, revered artist and sculptor Barbara Gollackner has developed a method of creating original homeware items from leftover food once destined to end up in landfill.

Teaming up with Astrian chef and restaurant owner Martina Kilga, she created a series of bowls, plates, and cutlery made entirely from excess grub and the ensemble is on display at Vienna Design Week.

Aptly dubbed ‘Wasteware,’ all pieces are largely comprised of pork skin and old bread from both industrial and personal waste systems. Feeling peckish yet?

Depending on the type of food, her ‘ingredients’ are either dried out or cooked before being blended into a smooth, malleable paste.

From here, the mixture is combined with mycelium – the vegetative fungi network which bonds mushrooms – and breadcrumbs to create more of an organic cement than a smoothie.

With the help of chef and food designer Peter Konig, the lot is then poured into a 3D printer where it transforms into specific shapes outlined by the creative vision of Gollackner.

‘The designs had to be super simple shapes – we are just in the middle of the process and we are still experimenting with the right consistency of the printing paste – the designs cannot have any super complicated shapes, it wouldn’t be possible to print,’ she explained.