OMLAB

Omlab is a circular, biobased material design studio in Arnhem, founded in 2019 by product designer Huub Looze and Margreet van Uffelen. It works with residual streams from companies and sectors that most would discard, including cellulose recovered from flushed toilet paper, and turns them into pastes and filaments that are printed into building components, tiles and objects for construction, soil and biodiversity.

The studio describes its method as designing to give back to nature: no mineral or fossil resources, and only chemistry that the natural world can work with. Its output ranges from embankment tiles and nature-friendly starter homes for swallows, nominated at the Dutch Design Awards 2023, to low-emission walls and urban installations that host habitats, presented at the Secrid Talent Podium during Dutch Design Week 2024.