LAB LA BLA is a design studio founded by Axel Landström & Victor Isaksson Pirtti. Their work focuses on materials and processes, exploring more sustainable possibilities and creating narratives through the objects made. The processes that they use often take inspiration from traditional making, or tools are hacked in order to create new intriguing objects. Their conceptual style allows conversation to arise from the aesthetics of the objects, but ultimately they are solving environmental issues which arise from product production, by creating more environmentally friendly alternatives, such as bio-compostites produced in accessible ways.

In 2018 90 billion tonnes of raw material was extracted globally, with 20% of this turning into unused waste. But it is now estimated that due to current trends this figure may double by 2060. Lab La Bla believes that we need to change the waste cycle. Instead of mass extraction and waste production we need to move from linear production systems to cyclic ones. Therefore creating value in waste. 

Pulp Fiction is Lab La Bla’s project which focuses on unwanted matter. Creating objects to highlight the potential of waste and by-products from Sweden’s top three industries: mining, agriculture, and forestry, which, like most of their work, look otherworldly and like a playful experiment. The materials used include pine resin and factory floor dust. It was important for them to use materials that are biodegradable and “bio-enhancing”, meaning that they add nutrients to the earth once disposed of.

The duo worked with agricultural scientists and Swedish natural resource industries to create their bio-composite. This material is made entirely from industry waste, such as iron ore dust which would otherwise be thrown away. They aim to be the symbiosis between detached industries in order to create collaboration and utilise all materials used and created. Waste is also seen as a local resource, every location around the world produces some sort of waste, therefore how can we create site specific products, or products that are suitable to be made in any location. An example of this is the utilisation of wheat. Wheat can be found in cultures across the globe, and is grown on more land area than any other food crop. But in Sweden only 20% of all this wheat goes to human consumption. The rest is non-food graded or is used as animal feed. The majority of wheat is refined in the starch industry, where gluten becomes a by-product. Gluten is also widely seen as a by-product, such as in the production of Vodka. Therefore, Lab La Bla looked to create a biopolymer using this gluten. Gluten’s proteins have unique viscoelastic and adhesive properties, so therefore works well as a binder for bio-based materials.  

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LAB LA BLA