As the world unites under the 2025 World Environment Day theme, ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’, the urgency to rethink our material choices has never been more critical. In the face of mounting plastic waste and greater demand for finite resources, designers and architects are stepping up to explore innovative, sustainable alternatives.
One such emerging voice is Graduate of Architecture, Jessica Gibbs. As part of her Master’s thesis at the University of Western Australia, she explored how marine bio-based materials such as shells, seaweed and seagrasses can be used to create viable substitutes for traditional building products, with the potential to transform our built environment without harm.
Her work highlights how the architectural industry can be a driving force in reducing dependence on harmful materials like plastic, paving the way for a built environment that is not only functional and beautiful – but also regenerative and resilient.
Where did you start your material explorations?
I started looking into mycelium, which is the root-like structure of a mushroom. It can be used as a biomaterial to make blocks, which led me to start exploring food waste and specifically, the sea, and then seafood waste. I was interested to find out where and how much waste is being produced, how it could be collected, potential applications and what’s currently happening at an industry level.
We then drilled down into types of seafood waste and began to run tests and experiments, looking specifically at fish guts, oyster shells and waterborne materials such as seaweed that washes up onto our shores. Interestingly, the seaweed species we looked at is called ‘jelly weed’ colloquially, which was used in the early days of the Swan River Colony during the early 1800s. It was collected by women, mixed with milk and used to create jellies, to be eaten.
Another huge byproduct of the seafood industry is oyster shells. We crushed them, broke them down and heated them in a kiln at 900 degrees Celsius to test different ways to work with them. This included heating them to produce lime for binding, removing the lime, incorporating the seaweed and even testing the hessian bags the oyster shells are delivered in.
What are some of the real-world applications for these material explorations?
The sea waste can be turned into non-structural building products including bricks, plaster, tiles and claddings. This is because some of these, e.g. the jelly weed, naturally contain polysaccharides – renewable and biodegradable molecules – which we can harness to turn into bioplastics. These can be used to make everyday products because they break down better over time than non-biodegradable plastics. Additionally, fish skin and bones can be turned into adhesives, which can also become an everyday product.
We discovered that seagrasses that wash up on the beach in large quantities could be used as potential environmentally friendly internal board material or bricks. Combined with the bioplastic from the seaweed, these offer excellent insulation and acoustic values, in line with northern European countries that use seagrasses for roof properties and traditional insulation.
From this, I’m now interested in a native species called Typha. It grows in lakes across Australia, and in Perth grows in most of our waterways. My collaborators at UWA and I are now looking at how the Typha could be harvested to make a fibreboard material. It’s interesting to see how your local species and context can be incorporated into our homes, but also in commercial uses such as education and office fit-outs at a very tangible scale.
What impact does research like this have on the wider built environment industry?
We are currently confronted with multiple global crises, including the climate emergency, mounting waste generation and a growing demand for finite resources. Consequently, we bear a significant responsibility in advocating and presenting consumers with responsibly sourced and sustainably produced material products.
Right now, the biggest struggle is perception. There are a lot of people in our industry who recognise there is work to be done and there are many more who are willing to be part of the change, which is encouraging. At the end of the day, it’s all so expensive to use here in Australia and the industry is quite limited.
However, I believe it can grow with greater education and awareness. We’re already seeing innovative projects come to life such as Arup’s Workplace in Perth, which is largely built from recycled timbers in Perth’s first hybrid-timber office tower. Overseas, there are lots of things happening too such as in Europe, where orange peels are being harnessed to make acoustic panels. With the right advocacy, Australian standards and support, there is huge potential in Australia to do more at every level.
