From Lab to MoMA: Designing a New Material System for Social Change

Manuel Ortiz
Nov 8, 2025
4 min read

Updated: 9 hours ago

A case in complex systems thinking: leading a biodesign project from lab research to a MoMA exhibit and a new sustainable industry.

Biodesign - Material Research - Systemic Design - Strategic Design - Business Modeling

Eye-level view of a designer's workspace with sketches and a laptop showing wireframes — *The original WOOCOA team and their trophy for winning the 2018 Biodesign Challenge at MoMA.*

Summary

My Role: Project Leader & Lead Designer, responsible for the entire project lifecycle: from initial concept, scientific research, and design strategy to community facilitation and branding.
The Challenge: To address the economic displacement of Colombian families affected by the post-peace agreement, my challenge was not to design a product, but to invent a new, sustainable agroindustry from the ground up.
The Outcome:
- Invented WOOCOA, a novel, animal-free wool alternative from coconut and hemp waste.
- Winner of the 2018 Stella McCartney & Biodesign Challenge; the project was presented at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Context and Challenge

The Socio-Economic Problem: The 2016 Colombian peace agreement, while a historic step, left thousands of families who previously subsisted on illegal harvesting (coca) without a viable income.

The "User" Problem: The "users" were these displaced families. Their problem was a lack of a legal, sustainable, and profitable livelihood. A secondary user was the fashion industry, which was (and is) actively seeking new, sustainable, animal-free materials.

Initial Constraints & Ambiguity: This was the definition of "high ambiguity". The brief was not "design a textile." The brief was "How can we use design to solve a socio-economic crisis?" We had to invent the material, the process, and the business model from scratch.

*First Strand prototype of Woocoa presented at MoMA. 2018.*

How I Led

As the Project Leader, I was the central hub for this complex, multidisciplinary initiative. My role was a hybrid of strategist, researcher, scientist, and community leader:
- Project Leader: I led the project from inception to its presentation at the MoMA, managing all collaborators, timelines, and the core vision.
- Lead Strategist: I formed the core "design strategies" , creating the systemic link between scientific innovation (enzymes), agricultural waste (hemp/coconut), and a new, legal agroindustry for displaced communities.
- Head of Research & Prototyping: I personally conducted the "scientific research," "lab research," and "fiber and enzyme experimentation" , working with university biology departments to develop the new material.
- Community Facilitator: I was the bridge to our "users," working with local artisans and farming companies to build the human-centered supply chain.

*Me taking a look at medicinal cannabis at the Cannalivio main site. June 2020*

Our Process

We started with a massive socio-economic problem. We had to find a design-led intervention point. Our research started with the community, identifying their core need: a new, legal income source. Separately, I researched agricultural waste streams in Colombia, identifying massive, unexploited resources: coconut and hemp fibers.

The "a-ha" moment was connecting these two problems. The solution to the families' economic problem could be the creation of a high-value material from this agricultural waste. We didn't need to design a product; we needed to design a system.

Strategies to Achieve Balance

The Challenge: Raw coconut and hemp fibers are too coarse for textiles. We had to invent a sustainable, non-chemical process to soften them.
The Action: This was our "prototyping" phase. I led the "lab research" , partnering with the Universidad de Los Andes' biology department. We experimented with growing Pleurotus Ostreatus (Oyster Mushroom) mycelium on the fibers.

*Laccasse treatment for Coconut Fibers in the University Lab.*

The Key Insight / Pivot: We discovered that the mushroom's digestive enzymes (laccases) were breaking down the lignin in the fibers, making them soft and colorless on a microscopic level. This was the scientific breakthrough that made WOOCOA possible.

*Electron Microscope image illustrating the before and after treatment of the Coconut fibers, demonstrating the viability of our experiment.*

With the Cannabis Fibers, we were able to extract them using traditional water-retting techniques. The real challenge comes from acquiring enough material to make it scalable in the future.

*Water-retting the Cannabis Stems to isolate the cannabis fibers.*

*Separating the fibers from the main stem after water-retting for 7 days.*

Florencia, an expert wool weaver, and me making a Woocoa yarn prototype. 2019

Close up of Woocoa's latest iteration. 2022

Woocoa team presenting their project at MoMA in the 2018 Biodesign Challenge.

The Impact:

Winner, 2018 Stella McCartney Animal-Free Wool Prize.
Exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City as part of the Biodesign Challenge showcase (https://www.youtube.com/live/q_8GAetAOas?si=cX2U_B8kypQEFSuS&t=21882).
Validated by Industry Leaders through an invitation to Stella McCartney's HQ in London to discuss sustainability and supply chains.
Created a New, Scalable Production Process by establishing a real-world supply chain with Colombian artisans and legal hemp companies.

The Original Team at the Stella McCartney HQ in London, UK. 2019.

Personal Reflection

This project taught me that the "user" isn't always a person clicking a screen; it can be a community, an industry, or an ecosystem. It proved that a designer's most powerful tool is systems thinking. By acting as a leader and strategist, I was able to connect science, community, and global commerce to design a solution that wasn't just a product, but a new, hopeful, and sustainable future for our "users".}