What if

Bio-metabolic interfaces were not just eco-equipment, but desirable artefacts embedded in everyday life?

In Moray, Scotland’s premier whisky-producing region, the continuous evaporation of ethanol from distilleries, the “Angel’s Share”, drives the uncontrolled growth of whisky fungus (Baudoinia compniacensis). This phenomenon reveals a limitation of conventional circular economy models: while they focus on closing industrial material loops, they often overlook the wider ecological impacts of industry, creating tensions between distilleries, local environments, and communities.

Rather than treating whisky fungus as a nuisance, this project reframes it as a design opportunity. Positioned between industrial and social design, it uses a site-specific artefact to connect industrial processes with ecological awareness, making otherwise invisible flows of wind, ethanol, and time physically perceptible.

The outcome, Aero Foliage, utilises a parametrically textured Kappa-carrageenan substrate designed as a series of contemporary tartans. By translating the unique geographical and natural elements of different towns across Moray into physical topographies, the artefact encourages localised fungal colonisation. As it gradually blackens in response to local microclimates, the artefact becomes a living record of whisky production. Moving beyond the product level of the circular economy, it extends circular thinking to the socio-ecological level, transforming industrial emissions into catalysts for ecological regeneration, cultural meaning, and new forms of coexistence within patchy landscapes.

Supervisor: Dr Gruffudd Hill
Biolab Technician: Muireann Nic an Bheatha
Workshop Technician: Brodie Birss