Even though Caracara was ‘officially’ founded early 2019, our material research dates some years back. We’ll run you through a brief timeline of key moments.
June 2015 / Designer mates Richard Sullivan and Aleksi Vesaluoma start developing a material from orange peel in Richee’s kitchen in London. Then they encounter an event which leaves Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall full of orange peel. After a chat with the organizers, the Groundnut, the guys walk out with as much orange peel as they can carry, which starts a new passion and a journey of material development.
October 2015 / Later in the autumn Aleksi and Richee are invited to showcase their peel findings at EatThis! event in Amsterdam, after which their project becomes titled Peel Partners.
September 2016 / Alongside their industrial design studies in London, the guys keep testing new recipes and techniques for working with peel, and Aleksi starts experimenting growing mycelium. In early 2017 they form Mandin together with four other design friends.
June 2017 / Mandin exhibits Aleksi’s structure grown from oyster mushrooms as part of the London Festival of Architecture. The project is published across media including Dezeen, Treehugger, Inhabitat and UNEP.
February 2018 / Aleksi is invited to join Biohm in London as Material Development Manager, bringing his biomaterial knowledge to form the backbone of their new construction materials. At Biohm he creates all kinds of expressive artworks to shine light on these rising materials.
September 2018 / Aleksi moves back to Helsinki and starts Caracara Collective with Viljam Ahdekivi and Anna-Katri Kulmala. Aleksi Vesaluoma and designer Aleksi Puustinen meet while planning the debut installation Living Man, and Caracara as we know it is born.
January 2019 / The first real studio space is found for continuing the biomaterial studies (no more kitchen mess). Over the months the space becomes a hybrid between a workshop, kitchen, laboratory, recycling station and an urban farm.
2019-2020 / Since setting foot in Helsinki, the two Aleksis have been cooking up all kinds of biomaterials, crafting new techniques and producing design installations at their Lauttasaari HQ, and they don’t intend to stop anytime soon! Let’s see what the future brings!
Materials
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