The Dwell 24: Shell Homage
Cairo designer Rania Elkalla uses food waste to create a biodegradable material that mimics the look of natural marble.
Cairo designer Rania Elkalla uses food waste to create a biodegradable material that mimics the look of natural marble.
The seed for Rania Elkalla’s material brand, Shell Homage, was planted 12 years ago over a family breakfast at home in Cairo. As she was working on her bachelor’s degree and already experimenting with product design using unusual materials, she realized the nutshells her family was discarding at this meal. "Why do we throw them in the trash—why don’t we extend their lifespan and make something out of them?" Elkalla says.
Courtesy Shell Homage
Elkalla knew she had tapped into something important—so she got her master’s at the Technical University of Berlin, where she developed a biodegradable material made from food waste, inspired by the shells that lend their name to her company.
It is important to Elkalla that her materials are not just sustainable but also aesthetically pleasing. The marbleized patterns of her works resemble natural stone, getting their rich colors from otherfood scraps like citrus peels, hibiscus, and beets. If that method worked for the 7,000-year-old Egyptian practice of dying stones and painting on walls, why wouldn’t it work today?
Though she’s currently producing—everything from light fixtures to tabletops and jewelry—in her own hometown, Elkalla remains curious about waste around the world: "If I moved to Latin America and had access to avocado peels,I’d love to explore that."
You can learn more about Shell Homage by visiting the studio’s website or on Instagram.
Top image courtesy Shell Homage
View the 2024 Dwell 24!
—
