00:00Shakira Jassit's design bridges many worlds.
00:04In her clay studio, her creations connect the past with the present.
00:07Her experiments bring together arts with sciences,
00:11always linking her South African Indian roots with her new European home in the Netherlands.
00:16What I would love people to understand about my work is that there is more to it than just a
00:21pretty thing.
00:23Usually, Shakira doesn't wear a lab coat, but for her latest project,
00:27the designer has swapped pencils for petri dishes.
00:30Here at Utrecht University, she's exploring the space where design meets bioengineering.
00:39That's how the research actually began.
00:41In the kitchen, in my kitchen, in Covid, everybody was stuck home and we were eating a lot of breakfast.
00:49And so there were lots of eggshells.
00:51And as a designer, I was just like really frustrated with not being able to do anything,
00:56not being able to go to a workshop or create something.
01:00And I started to play with the eggshells.
01:02What started at her kitchen table has now moved into the lab,
01:06where Shakira experiments with new sustainable materials for the building industry.
01:10Her research has grown from simple eggshells to other biomaterials.
01:15Natural ingredients like beetroot or spinach always driven by one question.
01:20What can be done to make building materials better?
01:25How can we create better?
01:28And simply those materials do not exist for us.
01:31That's why I think it's quite important to look at regenerative materials,
01:36materials that are not destructive or destroying.
01:41One of her key collaborators is Judith Hendricks, a scientist who leads the research's technical side.
01:48She was drawn to Shakira's unconventional way of thinking.
01:51I will show you how to do it.
01:54It's always nice to have her around.
01:59I like to help her and to learn her the things, what's necessary.
02:04And also I think it's essential to look for new biomaterials.
02:10With Judith's guidance, Shakira has learned to analyse samples under the microscope,
02:16harden biomaterials and use bacteria to alter their properties.
02:20Together they push the boundaries of what art and creation can be.
02:25I think that science and design could really complement each other and strengthen each other.
02:30With design alone you can achieve so much, but if you incorporate scientific methods,
02:37you could really strengthen your outcomes as a designer and reach different levels in your work.
02:45But getting here hasn't been easy.
02:47In this clay studio, Shakira has turned her past into tangible works of art,
02:51her story shaped in clay and colour.
02:56Shakira grew up in South Africa, but her roots are Indian.
02:59Her grandparents came to South Africa as migrant labourers.
03:02Her background still shapes her family's identity here, for example, at her wedding.
03:12When people experience the tableware, it would be lovely if it becomes a vehicle for them to understand the complexity
03:21of South African Indian history,
03:24what it means to be a South African Indian, bringing sort of two cultures together into one through memory, through
03:34material.
03:37One example, this cup. Its deep red tones are inspired by the African riverbeds where she swam as a child.
03:45I'm super proud of this collection. It's got a really, really special place in my heart.
03:50If I had to do it over again, I would do it in exactly the same way.
03:54The meaning in here is really something that embodies all the feelings and the memories that I have experienced as
04:02a child.
04:03In 2022, Shakira gained international attention at the UN climate conference in Egypt with Aquitecture, a water harvesting facade system
04:12aimed at addressing water scarcity, though it hasn't been deployed on a large scale.
04:17My passion with Aquitecture is really to get it on a building somewhere in the world.
04:23And so to have the design actually make that change when it's harvesting water and when that water is flushing
04:30toilets, that's where I would feel like I've succeeded.
04:33Despite relying largely on grants to fund her work, Shakira's creativity shows no sign of slowing down.
04:40Mostly with these long projects, they're not able to withstand the length of time if you're not able to have
04:49the stamina, the funds to pull it through.
04:53So my hope would be that there is enough of that to carry it to the end.
04:59Through art, science and persistence, Shakira Jasset continues to imagine and create new ways of shaping a more sustainable future
05:08for Europe and Africa alike.
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