Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures symposium 2025

In March this year we held the fourth Make Good symposium in the Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre.

Hosted in partnership with design and research studio Material Cultures, the afternoon of talks brought together foresters, material specialists, authors, architects, producers and makers to discuss the potential of our woodland resources, how we can cultivate them and regenerate the land on which they grow. As such, it took its cue from Material Cultures’ pioneering research into bark, natural glue and pine needles currently on display at the V&A in Woodland Goods.

Following an introduction from Summer Islam, co-director of Material Cultures and myself, curator of Make Good, our eleven speakers spoke across four sessions: Land, Forestry, Goods and Building. Here, we share our recordings from the day.

Land

Kicking off was economist and author Guy Standing, our keynote speaker, who raised the vital issue of access to our woodlands. He talked about The Charter of the Forest and the models for common ownership that could be reinstated.

Forestry

In our second session we looked at how we care for our forests. Jez Ralph from forestry practice Evolving Forests spoke on the state of British woodlands and how we can future proof them in the face of climate change, while designer Sarmīte Polakova showed us her work intersecting forestry systems in Latvia to develop new materials.

Introduction, Land and Forestry presentations and panel discussion

Goods

Our third session, Goods, introduced three practices who are innovating with natural, renewable materials to make products. Humphrey Bunyan and Sam Holland-Bunyan from Cecence raised the complex issue of binders, designer Rosa Whiteley of Cooking Sections spoke on designing processes that speed up geological time and Rodrigo García González, co-founder of start-up Notpla, showed us how the company is replacing single-use plastic with a material derived from seaweed.

Goods presentations and panel discussion

Building

In the final session of the day, three practices working across different scales addressed the question of what materials we should be building with – and how we should be sourcing and harvesting these materials. Seetal Solanki from Ma-tt-er spoke on why we need to reinvent our relationship with materials, architect Christian Benimana of MASS Design Group presented a conservation agriculture university building that demonstrates its own curriculum, and Ben and Loretta Bosence from Local Works Studio talked about building with bio-regional materials in the UK.

Building presentations

Building panel discussion

The 2025 Make Good symposium forms part of the V&A’s Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures programme, which aims to encourage the stewardship of natural resources and considers the responsibilities of designers and consumers towards the natural world in a time of climate crisis. If you want to learn more about this programme of talks and displays, please sign up to the Make Good newsletter.