Experimental Materiality

Aléa

Aléa is an experimental design and material research studio based in Paris. Miriam Josi (CH) and Stella Lee Prowse (AU) co-founded Aléa in 2021 after completing a Master of Science in Nature Inspired Design at Ensci-les Ateliers.

Their work explores growth, decay and waste, with the goal to develop regenerative methods of fabrication while honoring beauty in the process. Situated at the intersections of design, art, biology, and agriculture, Aléa’s practice blurs the boundaries between disciplines.

Their ongoing research Back to Dirt explores a unique myco-fabrication process that utilizes mycelium, the filamentous structure of fungi, and local waste substrates to grow objects in soil. The Boisbuchet Residency Award allowed them to apply their process at full scale, where they grew the first underground myco-fabricated chair. Their process bypasses the need for sterilization, electricity and plastic moulds, examining the potential of mycelia’s capacities to remediate soils in situ and contribute to nurturing biodiversity. Their research is supported by FAIRE Paris and has been presented at Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Amour Vivant Biennale, Fondation Thalie is Brussels, FRAC Orleans, Kadist and Galerie Sainte Anne in Paris, Zéruì in London and Paris and Milan Design Week.

2023 Aléa launched the Aléa Garden Lab, a long term transdisciplinary applied research project for bio-inclusive* practices at Domaine de Boisbuchet.

Mission

Aléa’s mission is to establish a deeper relationship between the natural and built environment by designing autonomous place-based systems for a post-fossil fuel future. Aléa’s aim is to take a critical approach to biodesign to avoid a trajectory of exploitation and control of nature and to instead imagine new ways of making that interact and share control and benefits with the other-than-human.

Services

Aléa's work is based on research, transmission and collaboration, collectively fundamental and supporting each other.

Research: Aléa’s applied research encompasses material experimentation and the development of regenerative processes and technologies.

Transmission: Considering education as key to transform design into a tool for change, Aléa’s aim is to share their methodology and approach. Miriam Josi and Stella Lee Prowse lecture and teach at various leading design schools and institutions.

Collaboration: Project-based collaborations with other designers, brands, companies and institutions materialise in reimagined and evocative materials, processes, systems, installations, set designs, objects and images.

Methodology

Aléa’s bio-inclusive methodology is grounded in holistic observation, open-ended experimentation and transdisciplinary collaboration. The term bio-inclusive is borrowed from environmental philosopher Freya Mathews, who interprets humans and nature as one and identifies the problem lying in there ever being a distinction between the two.

All projects are guided by a set of evolving design principles.

Exhibitions/events/talks:

2024

Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design, Craft Contemporary, LA

Myco-fabrication workshop Aléa x Park, Domaine de Boisbuchet

Conference Echelle 1 ENSA Paris Est, Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Paris

EARTHING, Haeckels House, London Craft Week, London

Silva Systems, Design Academy Eindhoven

Regenerative Assembly, CIVA, Bruxelles

Regenerative Futures, Fondation Thalie, Bruxelles

Glissements, Fondation Kadist, Paris

Design Vivant, Académie du Climat, Paris