Exploring Boundary Layers. The accidental invention of tarmac occurred outside an ironworks in Derbyshire when a barrel of tar spilled onto a nearby road. In an attempt to clear it, the ironworkers had covered the tar in waste slag from the furnaces creating a smooth, dust free surface. This accidental discovery soon became one of the most used surfacing methods across the western world sealing off our connection to the natural land beneath.

Lichens are another boundary layer, a metabolising life giver living at the outer edge of what we perceive as living. In a process known as ‘weathering’ a two-fold process involving physical growth and the deployment of acids and mineral-binding compounds to digest the rock, lichens pull apart borders of geological time generating new fertile soil - the cradle of life for other forms of vegetation to form and thrive.

We are constantly creating these boundaries - membranes between the world before humans and the world for humans. This project explores lichen and algae based materials and the possibility of resurfacing tarmac to breakdown this hard inanimate surface and reinvigorate our connection to the earth beneath. Could the surfaces of our urban environments begin to blur the boundaries of living lifeforms again?