BIO MAKERS STUDIO
Written by Sofie Lahtinen
Photography by Peppi-Lotta Heinonen
“The space grows very organically. It keeps morphing depending on what projects are being done. It’s not like the equipment determines the projects, it’s the other way around. The people determine the projects,” explains Ena Naito, creator of BioMakerStudio, one of Finland’s first dedicated makerspaces for the emerging, interdisciplinary field of biodesign.
Originally from Japan but raised mostly across Europe, Naito’s earliest curiosities were rooted in biodesign. “I was drawing, sketching, making things, doing sculptures, so I knew that I wanted to go into arts. But I also loved my studies. I really loved science, chemistry classes and doing chemistry experiments at home with things like red cabbage and pH indicators,” Naito says.
After her fine arts degree in the UK, it was a shared project in her master’s in contemporary design at Finland’s Aalto University where it clicked. “I collaborated with three chemical engineers on a cellulose-based biomaterial packaging. I fell in love with biodesign, just science, arts, design, all these mingling together.”
The team’s sustainable “DipWrap” won the Biodesign Challenge 2021 in New York, leading Naito to pursue a biodesign-related doctoral degree at Aalto. Her research, along with her work in the EU-funded green future accelerator, CoCoon, was the catalyst for BioMakerStudio at Aalto in Espoo.
From a single DIY incubator, the studio has evolved over countless iterations into its current form, open since early 2024. The studio reflects Naito’s drive to cultivate spaces where designers, creatives and scientists can creatively explore biodesign. Such spaces are lacking globally and, as Naito says, are critical for building sustainable skills in the field.
Naito believes Finland’s “craft -oriented approach to biodesign” and connection to nature position it uniquely in the global biodesign landscape. Both shape the evolution of the studio and the work created here.
“Finland has a very long tradition with crafts and people are close to their craft heritage,” says Naito, recalling a researcher from Lapland. “She was making textiles from discarded wool and wanted to combine it with mycelium [fungi roots] to see what kind of new craft possibilities are available and what kind of properties this could create.”
“This is very much an integration of a new kind of material in biodesign, together with an old, longstanding tradition of working with wool.“
With nature woven into everyday Finnish life, designing with it comes naturally “People are so used to being outside, inside, outside, inside and interacting with nature, just stepping out and foraging berries and coming back in—it’s very fluid, ” Naito explains.
“We have a lot of interest in natural dyes, because Finland is very big on natural dyes. People go foraging and mushroom picking a lot, so they bring their materials here and work with them. And combining it with other living organisms, like trying to dye scoby or root textiles with natural dyes.”
The studio celebrates “messy” exploration, countering the rigidity and inaccessibility of traditional labs. With workshops open to the public, the studio has a diverse community—from entrepreneurs to retirees and the bio-curious. It’s in these environments, as Naito puts it, “collaborative cultivation of curiosity” grows.
“Collaborating with others is very important at this moment, and in the field of biodesign... I think biodesign is one of the most promising approaches to contrast these critical challenges.”
Last spring, Brunelli explored bioreceptive design at BioMakerStudio for his visiting doctoral research at Aalto with Assistant Professor Barbara Pollini. Brunelli's focus on bioreceptive textiles—growing living organisms on fabric for regenerative and sustainable fashion, interior and urban design—led to a packed-out workshop co-hosted with designer Harvey Shaw. “That for me was an amazing space because I was very free to try different things, ” says Brunelli, who hasn’t found such a space in Florence.
“BioMakerStudio is different from others in that when you go there, you feel free to experiment. No one is ever judging you. Of course, there are some rules, you have to try to be safe and sterilised. But there, I feel free, you feel free to design, to experiment, to design with the living. You can grow and take care of your living organisms.”
Brunelli now continues project “Inertial” with his research team at the University of Florence, turning marble waste into sustainable building materials using microrganisms. He plans to visit Finland later this year. Meanwhile, Finnish multidisciplinary artist Jenni Talvikki is hands-on at the studio creating biomaterial ceramics for Aalto’s biggest annual exhibition, Designs for a Cooler Planet, running until 28 Oct 2025.
With a background in film, photography and painting, Talvikki discovered ceramics during a class in Portugal, but a mix of climate anxiety, lack of material traceability and curiosity led her to create with biowaste. “I started to get really stuck with the material [clay] and not wanting to use the kilns, and I went to extreme at one point,” Talvikki says.
“I was not allowing myself to do basically anything. I was restricting myself a lot and I felt like there wasn’t much freedom. Then I started to get interested in biomaterials. I felt free in a way, because I could source my materials locally from trash. Eggshells I get from a nearby bakery and other food waste from in our household or nearby.”
Talvikki boils, dries and mills the eggshells, then mixes them with paper waste and binders made from cellulose and algae to form a clay-like material. Her glazes and paints contain only plant -based pigments from plants in her garden and local food waste like onion peels and pineapple crowns.
“A lot of these processes I do are related to the soil, the garden, the growth and also how decay shapes ecosystems and spaces. Is it eutrophication [excess nutrients in the soil] or is it nutritious? I’m super interested in understanding that. I’m actually quite obsessed with that!”
Currently doing her master's in visual cultures, curating and contemporary art at Aalto, Talvikki believes BioMakerStudio is invaluable in Finland, “I think it'sactually super important because there's only one of this kind of place here.”
While BioMakerStudio cultivates an environment for new ways of making, its deeper value may lie in how it reshapes our relationship with making itself. The act of working with living organisms becomes a practice of attention and care. “You learn a lot about collaborating with the organism, the slowness of how things happen,” Naito says.
“The fact that things are uncontrollable sometimes, and you have to let go, and be open and responsive.” Design becomes something more than functional. It becomes relational.
“It’s not just about bacterial cellulose leather being more sustainable, but about engaging with that slow process of cultivation… where you start to become more aware of how we consume and how we produce.”
BioMakerStudio is a living prototype of how we might grow a better world together through curiosity, care and brave creativity. A world designed on common ground, where we share a deeper connection with all that surrounds us.