ZAINZURIAK

April marks spring's arrival for many in the Northern Hemisphere - and the start of asparagus season. As a passionate consumer, I began to wonder if asparagus fibers could have applications beyond their culinary appeal. The asparagus industry produces a significant amount of waste that is not suitable for consumption but could potentially be repurposed for material engineering. With its long, tensile fibers, asparagus presents an intriguing natural source for composite materials. The samples displayed are the result of experiments transforming white asparagus and its by-products into promising new materials.

The goal of this project was not to find a single ideal asparagus material, but rather to investigate the production processes within the asparagus industry, identify various types of waste generated at different stages, and creatively explore their potential for manufacturing uses. The result is a diverse array of materials: some focus on the fibers, others on the peel. Some samples are pure asparagus fibers without any additional binding substances, while others utilize the nutrient-rich asparagus cooking water as a base for bioplastics or even for cultivating bacterial cellulose via kombucha. These materials are woven, layered, or pressed, but they all share a common origin: ZAINZURIAK (the Euskera word for "asparagus").

Initially, I had the idea to experiment with white asparagus for fiber composite bio materials in 2023, when taking a class in Sustainability & Materials at my university - HTW University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany. Luckily, in Germany as well as in Spain the asparagus season lasts from April to the end of June, which happened to be exactly the period of time I recently did an internship at the Basque BioDesign Center in the Basque country of Spain one year after taking that class. Therefore, I decided to do further experimentation on this promising topic, profitting of the Center's equipment and knowledge. ZAINZURIAK is now permanently exhibited as part of the Material Library of the Basque BioDesign Center.