Design can be transformative. It has the power to improve our quality of life and to create a better and more sustainable world.
Leading Swinburne design researchers and engineers have proven their ability to achieve all of those things, by being recognised at the 2021 Good Design Awards for their outstanding contributions to design.
From a record 930 submissions to this year's awards, Swinburne entrants took home six Good Design awards. Three of those were highly-coveted golds.
Their recognition is proof that the design-led solutions and entrepreneurial and technology-infused thinking proffered by Swinburne researchers, designers and engineers is creating a better tomorrow - right this very second.
Mushi: a plastic-free solution to floating wetlands
A collaboration between Swinburne, Arup and Studio Edwards has won gold in the Design Research category for their project, Mushi (pronounced Moo-shi).
Swinburne's Architectural design lecturer Canhui Chen, architectural engineering lecturer Daniel Prohasky and research assistant Joshua Salisbury-Carter were part of the award-winning team.
Floating wetlands are designed to create healthy waterways and environments. The problem is, they're normally made out of plastic. That plastic degrades, contaminates bioecology and eventually ends up as waste.
Mushi aims to change that. It's the first wetland made completely out of biomaterials, meaning it's one hundred per cent biocompatible.
Prototyped and manufactured in Swinburne's ProtoLAB, Mushi takes the form of three floating, interlocking triangular-shaped mycelium (the roots of funghi) modules.
