Can a $21 window help a nation survive a war? Harry Blakiston Houston, founder of Insulate Ukraine, joins Grant Gibson for this landmark 150th episode to discuss how a simple double-layer window — made from PET and manufactured entirely in Ukraine — is helping families stay warm, creating local employment, and offering a sense of normality in a country shattered by Russia's invasion. In this episode, we dive into what 'material intelligence' looks like when designing under the most extreme constraints.

We discuss:

• Cardboard to PET: How early cardboard prototypes evolved into a $21, locally-manufactured double-layer window.
• Trust, Innovation and Empathy: The values driving Insulate Ukraine's work, and why they matter in a crisis.
• Ukraine's Civic Heroes: Celebrating the people keeping the country running.
• An Unlikely Origin: How the death of the Queen helped lead to the founding of Insulate Ukraine.
• Designing Under Fire: The particular difficulty of R&D in the humanitarian aid sector, and building an installation system from scratch.

Harry also reflects on day-to-day life in a war-torn country, working with whatever materials people had to hand, growing up in Northern Ireland, how Catholicism and boarding school shaped his thinking, and why he wants to rethink the development sector altogether.

Find out more and donate at insulate-ukraine.org.

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Can imperfection reshape modern industry? Hella Jongerius — one of the most influential designers of her generation, and one of the field's sharpest critical voices — joins Grant Gibson to discuss craft, colour, and her enduring fascination with the messy edges of mass production.

In this episode, we dive into the politics of materials and the discipline of long-term collaboration. We discuss:

• From Droog to Vitra: Emerging in 1993 alongside Jurgen Bey and Marcel Wanders, and what those early years taught her.
• Tough and Sweet: Developing her critical voice and taking aim at the design industry's obsession with newness and marketing.
• Materials Are Political: Why every choice of clay, textile or yarn carries weight.
• Avoiding the Path of Nostalgia: How to honour craft without retreating into it.
• Changing Industry from Within: Three decades of collaboration with Vitra, KLM, IKEA, Camper and Maharam.
• Colour as Communication: Why colour is a tool, not a decoration.

Hella also reflects on her major retrospective at the Vitra Design Museum, running studios across the Netherlands and Germany, her fascination with animals, and exploring her spiritual side.

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Can a needle and thread mend more than fabric? Ceramic artist Leah Jensen joins Grant Gibson to discuss the radical pivot in her practice after a brain cancer diagnosis — and how stitching became a daily act of survival, documentation and repair.

In this episode, we explore making as medicine and the quiet power of slow, analogue craft. We discuss:

• Renaissance Patterns: The unexpected art-historical roots of Leah's intricate, geometric ceramic surfaces.
• 'Anti-Digital' Making: Why she rejects screens and software in favour of the hand, the eye, and the hour-long stitch.
• The Brain Tumour Book: How embroidery became a diary of diagnosis, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy — exhibited this April at London's Fitzrovia Chapel with Cavaliero Finn.
• 'Sewing is an act of emotional repair': Using thread — and her own hair — to process trauma, memory loss and identity.
• Return to Clay: Re-entering the ceramic studio after illness, and how the two mediums now speak to each other.

Leah also reflects on collapsing behind a bar in the moment that changed everything, the role of her parents and partner in her recovery, and what making has taught her about being present.

You can support The Brain Tumour Charity via the Brain Tumour Book fundraising page: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/braintumourbookcharityfundraisingexhibition

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Can we actually recycle cigarette butts, dirty nappies, and coffee pods? Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle and the reuse platform Loop, joins Grant Gibson to reveal how 'Material Intelligence' can turn global rubbish into a viable business.

In this episode, we dive into the economics of waste and the design of a circular future. We discuss:

• The ‘Milkman’ Model: How Loop is bringing back convenient reuse.
• Dirty Nappies & Chewing Gum: The tech behind recycling the ‘unrecyclable’.
• The Problem with Sandpaper: Why some materials remain a design flaw.
• Business of Rubbish: From a ‘worm poop’ startup to a global powerhouse.
• Politics & Sustainability: Building a green business in a shifting climate.

Tom also reflects on his journey as a refugee, dropping out of Princeton, and why his office is permanently filled with trash.

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Can a communication designer change the global conversation on rubbish? Sophie Thomas OBE—a rare blend of campaigner, chartered waste manager, and practicing designer—joins Grant Gibson to discuss her extraordinary, three-decade journey at the vanguard of sustainable design.

In this episode, we explore how ‘material intelligence’ and circular design thinking can inform activism. We discuss:

• Graphic Activism: How design can move beyond ‘guilt’ to create real environmental change.
• Rubbish Tours: a life-changing trip to a Dutch recycling center and what happens when you take a thousand designers to a landfill site.
• Obsession with the Toothbrush: Why a simple, ubiquitous object exposes a global design flaw.
• The Future of Ink: Why Sophie’s future career is shifting back to the most fundamental graphic material.

Sophie also reflects on starting her career at The Body Shop, working on the Earth Centre, and whether a designer can ever create without guilt.

Explore more: Visit materialmatters.design for more on our fairs and conferences, and sign up to our newsletter for regular updates and insights on material intelligence.

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Can a discarded pair of jeans become a luxury item? Anna Foster, founder of the sustainable fashion brand ELV Denim, has saved thousands of garments from landfill by proving that they can. She joins Grant Gibson to discuss how ‘material intelligence’ is redefined in the world of high fashion.

In this episode, we dive into the complex water footprint of denim and the design of a regenerative fashion loop. We discuss:

• East London Vintage: How ELV is proving that ‘women are born to innovate.’
• Radical Localism: Finding all her skilled makers within a three-mile radius of her studio.
• Rethinking Luxury: Value and desire in materials that other people reject.
• Expanding the Palette: Upcycling old hotel linens and expanding beyond denim.

Anna also reflects on her 20-year career as a fashion editor and why she prefers her denim without stretch.

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Important fact check: Grant misread some of his statistics in this episode. We produce between 4.5 to 6 billion pairs of jeans a year and a pair of jeans uses 3,800 litres of water to produce. We’re happy to correct these errors. 

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Can seaweed eradicate single-use plastic? Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, co-founder of the award-winning packaging company Notpla, joins Grant Gibson to discuss the rapid rise of one of the world’s most exciting alternative materials.

In this episode, we dive into the history of seaweed as a resource and the technology of material replacement. We discuss:

• The Earthshot Prize: How a student project in a kitchen won a global environmental award.
• The Perfect Replacement: Why seaweed is the ultimate regenerative substitute for plastic packaging.
• Ooho & The London Marathon: Using edible bubbles to eliminate thousands of plastic bottles.
• Scaling Up: Notpla's journey from a crowdfunding campaign to a global brand.
• Industry Resistance: The political challenges of replacing traditional plastic.

Rodrigo also reflects on his early water balloon experiments in Hyde Park and why he almost became an architect.

Explore more: Visit materialmatters.design for more on our fairs and conferences, and sign up to our newsletter for regular updates and insights on material intelligence.

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Can a multi-disciplinary designer turn agricultural and industrial waste into raw materials for creativity? Shubhi Sachan, founder of the Material Library of India, joins Grant Gibson to discuss unlocking the potential in India's complex waste landscape.

In this episode, we dive into the global and local impact of waste. We discuss:

• The Material Library of India: Establishing a new center for research in New Delhi in 2017.
• Waste Colonialism: Tackling the ethical dimensions of international textile waste.
• Reimagining Cotton: Why the crop needs to be completely rethought as climate-adaptive.
• Rejected Condom Streetwear: Turning manufacturing flaws into a radical new material collection.
• The Future of MLI: Reusing industrial materials in a capitalist world.

Shubhi also reflects on opening a textile thrift store and why her family has questioned her path.

Explore more: Visit materialmatters.design for more on our fairs and conferences, and sign up to our newsletter for regular updates and insights on material intelligence.

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Carole Collet is professor in Design for Sustainable Futures at Central Saint Martins. She is also director of Maison/0, the CSM – LVMH creative platform for regenerative luxury and co-director of the Living Systems Lab, a research group at the same university. 

During 2000, she founded the Textile Futures course at CSM, which went on to become Material Futures and has spawned a string of brilliant students attempting to get to grips with some of the most important issues of the day. Several have appeared on this podcast. She is, in many respects, the grande dame of new materials thinking. 

In this episode we talk about: the two platforms she runs at CSM; how creativity can be a catalyst for regenerative luxury; what terms like bio- and regenerative design mean to her; working with UNESCO in Bolivia; creating lab-grown fur; plastic problems in the Philippines; her groundbreaking BIOLACE project; founding the Textile Futures MA and creating ‘disobedient’ design courses; a brief history of fast fashion; the magic of mycelium; growing up in the French countryside and working in her mother’s flower shop; becoming interested in ecology; and the importance of collaboration in her work.

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This episode of Material Matters is as much about an object as it is a material. Tom Broughton is the founder of Cubitts, a modern spectacles company based in London’s Kings Cross. The company started in 2013 from his kitchen table and has grown to 20 stores across the UK and US, serving 250,000 customers across 100 countries. It offers frames in a number of materials – such as stainless steel and titanium – but is renowned for its use of acetate.

According to the company’s website Cubitts was ‘founded to help more people live better lives through spectacles they proudly wear – and create a better, and more responsible, industry along the way.’

In this episode we talk about: how early Modernism influenced Cubitts; living in (and loving) the Isokon building; founding his company and ‘literally doing everything’; not having a business plan; the joy of acetate and how the material defines his brand; a brief history of spectacles and London’s making legacy; why he has a problem with the word ‘eyewear’; being prescribed glasses at the age of 14 and collecting vintage frames in his 20s; getting bored easily and enjoying failure; disrupting the optics industry; being 'unrelenting' and making sacrifices in his personal life; and having an addictive personality.

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