It grows abundantly without the need for extra resources, it’s a rich source of vitamins and minerals, and it can be used for fabrics, furniture  and dyes, energy solutions and housing. Seaweed is nothing short of a miracle.  So could this humble but prolific algae be the answer to our environmental problems?Since seaweed first emerged, which according to scientific estimates, was, around three-and-a-half billion years ago, it has flourished to become what some would consider the most important organism on earth. These single-celled marine plants produce between 75 and 80 per cent of the world’s oxygen, a key component in the air we breathe. They supply the energy required to support diverse coastal marine life and habitats for invertebrates and fi sh, underpinning the functioning of coastal ecosystems worldwide.

Seaweed is a marine algae – a multicellular, plant-like organism that attaches itself to rocks or other hard substrata in coastal areas. There are more than 1,500 species of green seaweed, 200 species of brown and more than 7,000 species of red; each with different properties and attributes, enabling us to utilise in numerous ways this abundant organism that exists in the world’s oceans.

In the UK, harvesting of seaweeds for food, feed and fertilisers has been carried out for centuries; seaweed farming however does not have a long history. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been increasing interest in seaweed aquaculture, mainly driven by research into algal biofuel technologies. Seaweed could become an important source for third generation biofuels production as its aquaculture does not compete for land and freshwater with either food or non-food crops. Furthermore, seaweeds have high productivity, fast growth rates and high polysaccharide content – all important qualities for biomass for biofuels.
Macroalgae could also represent a significant sink for anthropogenic CO2 (‘Blue Carbon’), and cultivation and the harvesting of seaweed could play an important role in carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

For Victorian women, the British seaside was not just for exploring restorative landscape or for activities such as swimming and bathing, but an opportunity for them to contribute to science. Seaweed hunting became an acceptable activity for women to be involved in due to the fact that seaweed was a plant that was extremely docile in behaviour and was very close to home, so it never really put the women in danger or harm’s way.

Foraging for seaweed remains at its core, similar to the way in which we farm and forage on land. Edible species such as dulse, kelp, carrageenan, laver and gutweed are easy to recognise, unlike their more ambiguous land-dwelling neighbours, fungi and flowering plants.

Margaret Gatty, a well-known author and expert in marine biology, is most famous for her 1863 book about British seaweeds. She closely observed and discovered many varieties of seaweed in Britain, a deep fascination that provided evidence as to how marvellous seaweed was for the British coast and environment for generations beyond the 1800s.

Complex and versatile, seaweed has become much more than an edible aquatic vegetable. Over the course of humanhistory, it has been appropriated and transformed into a variety of biomaterials fibre, furniture, energy solutions and housing. Seaweed and algae-based biomaterials are on the rise due to their renewable nature, versatility and also their biodegradable attributes which ultimately grace their lasting presence by nourishing the earth’s soil.

At present, 98 per cent of our food and energy is the product of land-based agriculture. Although seaweed resembles a plant, it is actually a type of complex algae, which grows much faster than the majority of vegetation cultivated on land, and could offer huge benefits to the environment. Hanan Alkouh, a recent graduate from the Material Futures masters programme at the UAL’s Central Saint Martins, has addressed what we could be eating in a post-meat world by creating a collection of Sea-Meat. Alkouh discovered that when dulse – an edible variety of seaweed – is deep-fried, it tastes like bacon, a flavour that most converted vegetarians miss the most. It’s a revelation that could provide one alternative to the harmful effects of the meat farming industry, often cited as a primary factor in rising levels of carbon dioxide. Many restaurants in the UK are now adopting this newly found discovery into their menus.

The familiarity of seaweed within our diets has existed mainly in Asian food, where it is a popular ingredient that boasts a high nutritional content, with a variety of benefits to human health. 
Sustainable packaging collective Notpla took on the challenge of supplying its edible water pods made from seaweed-based material, Ooho, for the London marathon in April 2019 as a thirst quencher for all the runners on mile 23 (out of the 26.2 mile course), which not only avoided and reduced the considerable number of single-use plastic bottles (215,000) required for the event but also provided the runners with a hit of nutrition and minerals.

In response to the damaging effect that single-use plastic is having on the planet, Notpla has taken their Ooho experiments further; it can also be used as a waterproof and greaseproof coating on cardboard food packaging. Meanwhile, experimental design studios such as Agar Plasticity and Icelandic designer Ari Jónsson have been exploring and experimenting with seaweed and algae alternatives for petroleum based plastics. The results of their biobased packaging outcomes demonstrate that there are most definitely alternative materials and methods in order to respond to the plastic epidemic and there is hope for this issue to be resolved – and perhaps seaweed is part of the solution.

The textile industry has also been hitting recent headlines with its associated waste and pollution. Foraging and harnessing crops for textiles has been a longtime tradition that has mainly taken place on land but, in a two-year study, designer Nienke Hoogvliet, based in Delft in the
‘Seaweed grows on 70 percent of the earth’s surface, causing little
to no conflict for space on land, and needs no extra resources’Netherlands, has been foraging for her raw material by exploring the underwater forests of seaweed not too far from her studio. The Netherlands has abundant resources of seaweed, which gave Hoogvliet the perfect opportunity to explore this material beyond its remits with a wideranging set of materials: a soft yarn, and natural textile dyes and biodegradable plastic alternatives with a diverse colour palette. Hoogvliet was particularly surprised to discover that different kinds of seaweed can yield natural dyes in a broad range of hues. Using these, she has coloured textiles in greens, browns, greys, pinks and purples. The dye’s resistance to fading has also proven to be excellent.

Hoogvliet has hand-woven a length of fabric for a deckchair seat from a seaweed-based yarn. It has also been naturally dyed with seaweed, and the remnants from this process were turned into paint for a tabletop piece of furniture. Hoogvliet experimented with dyeing textiles using several types of seaweed, each producing a variety of different colours onto protein-based fabrics (natural dyes only take to natural fibres, ie, wool, silk and linen). They also proved to be light and colour fast. Seaweed that Hoogvliet has spun, created with cellulose extracted from kelp, has similar properties to viscose, which is commonly used in the clothing industry. Her kelp-cellulose fabric was hand-woven and then naturally dyed – also using seaweed – to create a soft textile. Hoogvliet also used leftover bladderwrack (a seaweed commonly found off the coast of the Netherlands) from this process to create paint for the tabletop.
Finally, paint remnants were used to create biodegradable ‘plastic’ bowls. A complete homewares range made entirely from nontoxic, renewable seaweed, which could theoretically furnish an entire house, is a vision that Hoogvliet hopes will one day become a reality.

The design and technical innovation collective Pangaia is also helping to make seaweed textiles mainstream – with the potential to reduce the impact of cotton production and chemical dye production. Seaweed grows on 70 per cent of the earth’s surface, causing little to no conflict for space on land, and needs no extra resources, unlike cotton, which requires heavy resources of water, labour, fertilisers and so on. The same can be said for the chemical dyeing process, and if a natural dye such as seaweed is being utilised it would mean that there is no damage to the water supplies; to the contrary, it is providing nourishment.

Seaweed and algae are also undergoing some technological breakthroughs with a groundbreaking project by designers Eric Klaarenbeeck and Maartje Droos, part of Algae Lab at Atelier Luma, which was set up by Jan Boelen who is a strong advocate of seaweed and algae. He is also the course leader of Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven and runs a practice called Z33. A combination of biology and technology creates a biopolymer that can be 3D-printed into solid forms that are entirely waterproof – which has the capability to replace its fossil fuel predecessors enabling an option that doesn’t take hundreds of years but merely up to 12 weeks to biodegrade. Genius.
Solid matter can also be achieved with seaweed if it’s combined with used old newspaper. Danish designers Jonas Edvard and Nikolaj Steenfatt reconstituted these mono-materials to create a collection of furniture and home furnishings, working with the gelatinous nature of seaweed and applying it as a binding agent to each piece.

Haeckels, a Margate-based beauty brand works with the abundance of seaweed surrounding its local environment, cultivating and processing it into healing and nurturing products for the body, beneficial not only to the body but the waters it grows within.

Larger scales of production can be achieved when considering the architectural possibilities of seaweed. Eelgrass is being used to insulate buildings, providing a healthier environment within the home. And the architectural engineering company Arup once powered a building for two weeks using only algae.

In the end, it’s all a question of energy. Seaweed, like all plants, harnesses the power of sunlight to fuel a chemical process that ultimately provides a biomass energy that can be applied in the production of food, architecture, textiles, products, furniture, fuel, plastic alternatives, health products and cosmetics. As this method continues to grow, so do the opportunities for this extraordinary living organism.

At a time when it is imperative to rethink how humans cohabit with other forms of life, all of these examples intend to explore seaweed as an ambassador to reframe our understanding of the world.

You see, humans have a complex relationship with the environment and also the life that we don’t understand outside our knowledge. Seaweed is one of those species that has on some occasions stopped us from entering the water, with its slimy texture and its somewhat ugly looking nature making us feel rather afraid or disgusted.
Discovering the many ways in which seaweed as a material can be explored offers human beings the chance to see this substance in a more optimistic light by creating familiarity to the outcomes it can produce ultimately for human consumption, experience and enjoyment.

It’s fundamentally about balance. Balance between humans and the environment, a balance between water and land grown materials, a balance between large scale and small-scale production and creating circularity, a material that is grown in water not only provides a nourishing ecosystem in its natural habitat, but when decomposed it offers nutrition to the soil, a balance of CO2 and oxygen – all in all creating a balance between the people and the planet. There is hope for us yet, and seaweed might just off er us the opportunity to combat the climate crisis and perhaps achieve a carbon neutral status.

Humans – and all living things – are clearly deeply dependent on seaweed and algae, which are a large part of carbon sequestration. They are at the basis of the food chain. Growing in all fresh and sea water as well as in the most peculiar and extreme places on earth, they have developed fantastic symbiotic strategies to cohabit with other living species. Yet, humans still know so little about these fascinating organisms. While seaweed and algae are more and more promoted by humans as one the most miraculous alternatives to solve the climate crisis, they will most probably outlive humanity… There is still a lot we need to learn from this organism.

Seetal Solanki is founder and director of Ma-tt-er. Her book, Why Materials Matter, is published by PrestelWORDS SEETAL SOLANKI PHOTOGRAPHS SAM WALTON