Ori Orisun Merhav graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven, NL in 2022, shortly after founding Made By Insects in Brussels, while living and intersecting with Espace Aygo. She launched the first 3D printed objects in the lac polymer with Ginger Additive, Reflexlab, Aeditto in 2023. The designer was appointed as an associated researcher at the Bio-Polymer Lab of Avans Hogeschoo in 2024. Ori has been shortlisted for awards such as the Bio Art and Design Award 2023 and the Kazerne Design Award 2023. Her pieces are part of Jan van Eyck’s Future Materials Bank permanent collection. Her innovative designs have been featured in Elle Decoration, Dezeen, and the Financial Times. As of 2025, her work has been acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of their permanent collection.
The artist asks: “In the near future, our interiors may be grown instead of built, with unconventional materials and techniques shaping our surroundings into circular ecosystems that intertwine the natural and industrial environments. What if tiny insects would be our architects?”
Through long-term collaborations with scientists and engineers, Orisun pushes the boundaries of this ancestral substance, developing innovative techniques that range from blowing lac-like glass to 3D-printing it into intricate, architectural forms. These breakthroughs open new possibilities for lac to shape contemporary interiors, spanning bespoke design objects, large-scale installations, and experimental architectural elements. Her work challenges and expands our relationship with natural materials, proposing new forms of bio-inclusivity that bridge fiction and reality.