Designer Natsai Audrey Chieza Director of Faber Futures will be speaking at the 2020 Design Indaba Conference. The multifaceted platform inspires and empowers people to create a better future through design and creativity.The conference will be hosted from the 26th February – 28th February.
Chieza was born in Zimbabwe and moved to the UK when she was 17 where she studied architecture and completed her master’s degree in materials futures at Central St Martins in London. She has always been passionate about promoting sustainability and eliminating waste in fashion hence she established Faber Futures.
She discovered a way to forgo resource-costly textile dying by using bacteria instead. Together with Professor John Ward of the Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London, they combined the fields of science and design by developing a series of projects exploring the use of bio pigments for textiles.
“I have spent about eight years iterating on my design protocols to integrate S.coelicolor in the production of textiles, building the tools, choreographing the design methods, recording and building a real understanding of how you can co-create with living systems.” said Chieza.
Chieza is named on OkayAfrica’s “100 Women 2018” for her work in STEM, Icon Magazine’s 2019 and has exhibited at prestigious institutions. Her work has been attained at the Cooper Hewitt and sits in the permanent collection at Forbes Pigment Collection at Harvard Art Museums.
Amanda Mkhize
