Biomaterials · Artistic exploration · Regenerative design

A material that gives back to the river it came from.

Flumen Labs works the riverbed of the Otra in southern Norway, turning bulbous rush — the weed that has troubled these rivers for decades — into paper and bioplastic.

See the projects The material
Bulbous Rush · Juncus bulbosus Paper & bioplastic Otra, southern Norway

The material

A river weed, treated as a material.

Bulbous Rush — bulbous rush, Juncus bulbosus — has troubled the rivers of southern Norway for decades. It mats the riverbed, crowds out native species, and ruins spawning grounds; where it is cleared, it is usually just dumped. Flumen Labs treats it as a material instead — not to make something sustainable, but something regenerative, that gives back to the river it came from.

Aerial view of the Otra, a harvesting boat cutting a channel through dense mats of bulbous rush.

Projects

Open a project to look inside.

Each is an experiment in what bulbous rush can become. Tap a project to expand it.

The Bulbous Rush Lamp, lit, hanging against a warm wall.
FL·01 · Lighting

Bulbous Rush Lamp

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A pendant light shaped after a bulbous rush seed, its shade made from the same weed pulled out of the Otra.

The shade is built on a laser-cut birch frame — numbered ribs assembled into a seedpod — then skinned in bulbous rush paper and bioplastic. Where the fibre is left full it stays opaque and earthen; where it thins, warm light passes straight through in a soft grid.

What the river chokes on, the room is lit by.

Harvested bulbous rush is dried, frozen, chopped and boiled into pulp, then formed using methods drawn from old Korean and Japanese craft, so the material breaks down in nature rather than outlasting it.

Material
Bulbous Rush (Juncus bulbosus) — paper & bioplastic
Structure
Laser-cut birch frame, seed-form
Light
Warm LED, grid-diffused
Shown
Environmental Week, Kristiansand, 2025

Making of

Pulling a sheet of bulbous rush paper on a mould screen over a vat.
01 — Pulling a sheet of bulbous rush paper on the mould.
A finished bulbous rush paper swatch held up to the light, fibres glowing.
02 — A cured swatch, held to the light.
Laser cutter cutting numbered curved ribs from plywood.
03 — Laser-cutting the numbered birch ribs.
Assembled birch seedpod frame with engraved rib labels.
04 — The assembled seed-form frame.
Bulbous Rush fibre panels being laid onto the birch frame.
05 — Skinning the frame in bulbous rush fibre.
Two people fitting a large bulbous rush fibre panel onto the ribbed birch frame, ironing it into shape.
06 — Fitting a panel to the rib frame.
Two people working together on the lit shade, trimming and finishing a panel seam by hand.
07 — Finishing a seam on the lit shade.
Steam-ironing a dried sheet of bulbous rush paper flat.
08 — Steam-ironing a dried sheet flat.
The skinned shade lit from within, grid of light through the fibre.
09 — Lit from within, the grid appears.
The finished lamp shown at an exhibition stand, held for scale, with flat bulbous rush samples on the table.
Shown at Environmental Week, Kristiansand, 2025, with flat bulbous rush samples.
The Flumen Labs team in the studio kitchen, chopping and pulping harvested bulbous rush by hand.
The team at work — chopping, pulping, and soaking bulbous rush by hand in the studio.
Bulbous Rush seen through water with its own sky reflection, overlaid with looping white script drawn from the grass.
FL·02 · Print

Bulbous Rush Print

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Bulbous Rush worked into paper and pulled as a print — the river weed as a surface to draw on.

Bulbous Rush paper becomes the ground for a relief print. A block is laser-engraved with a map of the river and the words "Flumen Labs · Juncus bulbosus · otraelven," then inked by hand with a brayer and printed onto the paper — a letterpress-style process, adapted for the lab's own material.

Inking the laser-engraved relief block with a brayer roller.

The same river the print maps also carries the writing back — bulbous rush seen through the water, its blades doubling as looping script.

Material
Bulbous Rush (Juncus bulbosus) paper
Method
Relief / letterpress print, hand-inked
Subject
The river, mapped — otraelven
Year
2025
Two finished prints drying under a press on a wooden rack, showing the river outline and the words flumen labs, juncus bulbosus, otraelven.
The finished print, framed and hung, showing the river outline and the words flumen labs, juncus bulbosus, otraelven.

Making of

Measuring out a batch of bulbous rush pulp in the lab kitchen.
Measuring out a batch of bulbous rush pulp in the lab kitchen.
Getting paper moulds and screens ready to pull a sheet.
Getting paper moulds and screens ready to pull a sheet.
Sketching the print's motifs, with a wet sheet still resting on the felt.
Sketching the print's motifs, with a wet sheet still resting on the felt.
Lifting a fresh sheet of bulbous rush paper from the mould.
Lifting a fresh sheet of bulbous rush paper from the mould.
Reviewing a batch of dried bulbous rush sheets before printing.
Reviewing a batch of dried bulbous rush sheets before printing.
Beating bulbous rush fibre by hand, the traditional way.
Beating bulbous rush fibre by hand, the traditional way.
Sorting soaked bulbous rush fibre before beating.
Sorting soaked bulbous rush fibre before beating.
Presenting the bulbous rush work at a public event in Kristiansand.
Presenting the bulbous rush work at a public event in Kristiansand.
Translucent green bioplastic strands, a biomaterial sample from the library.
FL·03 · Collaboration

UiA Biomaterial Library

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A growing, physical library of biomaterials — a collaboration with the University of Agder (UiA).

Every batch the lab makes is catalogued as a physical sample: recipe, source, and result, kept so each material can be found, compared, and remade. Established together with the University of Agder, the library turns one-off experiments into a shared, referenceable resource.

A bulbous rush biomaterial sample held to the light.
Partner
University of Agder (UiA)
Form
Physical, catalogued biomaterial samples
Status
Being established
Supported by
Cultiva

From the library

Translucent green bioplastic extruded into tangled strands.
Green bioplastic — cast into translucent strands.
A sheet of amber-yellow bulbous rush bioleather held up in the studio.
Amber bioleather — bulbous rush worked into a light, porous sheet.
Children at an outdoor workshop mixing coloured biomaterial solutions from squeeze bottles into bowls.
A public workshop — mixing coloured biomaterial recipes by hand.
Casting a dark biomaterial sheet in a mould.
Casting a dark biomaterial sheet in a mould.
A biomaterial workshop session, recipes and samples laid out.
A biomaterial workshop session, recipes and samples laid out.
Testing a blue powder pigment in a bio-recipe mix.
Testing a blue powder pigment in a bio-recipe mix.
Testing a coffee-based biomaterial recipe as a group.
Testing a coffee-based biomaterial recipe as a group.
Logging a sample in the biomaterial workshop notebook.
Logging a sample in the biomaterial workshop notebook.
Sieving soaked bulbous rush fibre together as a group.
Sieving soaked bulbous rush fibre together as a group.
At the Regenerative Design MA exhibition, Central Saint Martins, London — shown in memory of Tom Longmate.
At the Regenerative Design MA exhibition, Central Saint Martins, London — shown in memory of Tom Longmate.
The lab together in London, 2026, at the Regenerative Design MA exhibition.
The lab together in London, 2026, at the Regenerative Design MA exhibition.
A hand holding a small 3D-printed object made from extruded bulbous rush paste, built up in looping layered strands.
FL·04 · Fabrication

Bio 3D Printing

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Printing objects directly from a bulbous rush-based paste — form-making without a mould.

Bulbous Rush pulp is worked into a paste and extruded layer by layer, the same way a 3D printer builds up plastic — except here each looping strand is river fibre, left visibly hand-built rather than smoothed away.

Printed on a Wasp 2040 clay-printing setup and a modified Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, testing how far a standard FDM platform can be pushed with a wet, fibrous paste instead of filament.

Close-up of the 3D-printed bulbous rush object, showing the looped, extruded strands.
A ridged, diagonally-textured bulbous rush block standing upright outdoors on a wooden railing.
Material
Bulbous Rush (Juncus bulbosus) paste
Method
Extrusion 3D printing, layered strands
Status
Early prototype
Supported by
Cultiva

Making of

The Wasp 2040 delta printer's build plate, set up for a paste extrusion job.
The Wasp 2040 delta printer's build plate, set up for a paste extrusion job.
Arranging small printed pieces on a perforated plate.
Arranging small printed pieces on a perforated plate.
The lab's vacuum former, heating a sheet ready to pull over a mould.
The lab's vacuum former, heating a sheet ready to pull over a mould.

The lab

A lab for biomaterials, artistic exploration, and regenerative design.

Flumen Labs works the riverbed of the Otra in southern Norway. It exhibited at Environmental Week in Kristiansand in 2025, and in 2026 took part in the Regenerative Design MA exhibition at Central Saint Martins in London. A library of biomaterials is being established at the University of Agder.

Founded with
Naysa Andrade, Tom Longmate, Erick Thomas Allende, Nina Bjørkendal, Henriette Hultmann
Focus
Biomaterials, artistic exploration, regenerative design
Site
The riverbed of the Otra, southern Norway
Material
Bulbous Rush (Juncus bulbosus) — paper, bioplastic
Exhibited
Environmental Week, Kristiansand, 2025 · Regenerative Design MA, Central Saint Martins, London, 2026

In memory of Tom Longmate, a founding member of the lab, who died in 2026.

About us

Portrait of Naysa Andrade

Naysa Andrade

Naysa Andrade lives and works in Kristiansand, Norway. She studied architecture in Venezuela. Member of AAVC, Asociación de Artistas Visuales de Catalunya, Spain. Member of NBK (Association of Norwegian Visual Artists). She studies and researches art, science, and technology to explore and enable a fusion of art and technology in her interactive works. She works across a range of media, including video, photography, sculpture, projections, installations, and objects. Since 2017 she has worked as director and curator of 51K Arteriet.

Portrait of Haavard Tveito

Haavard Tveito

Haavard Tveito is a Norwegian architect and digital artist based in Kristiansand, working at Alma Eik AS. Haavard has worked internationally in London and São Paulo on interactive installations and architecture, including for the studio Marshmallow Laser Feast and under his own name. His work explores the relationship between architecture, people, and nature through new technology, often with a focus on sound and digital tools such as virtual reality.

Portrait of Erick Thomas Allende

Erick Thomas Allende

Erick Thomas Allende is an architect and designer, and a partner at Aksent Arkitekter, which has offices in Kristiansand. He holds a master's degree in timber construction from France, where he was able to combine technological understanding with his interest in natural materials and sustainable solutions. As a forest owner, he also has a close and practical relationship with nature, which deepens his respect for resource use and material choices in architecture. After several years in France, Switzerland, and Norway, he found that materials like wood were often treated as alternative solutions rather than as load-bearing choices in modern architecture. It was this insight that led him to found his own architecture firm in 2014 — a professional home with room for his own values and a holistic architectural approach.

Portrait of Nina Bjørkendal

Nina Bjørkendal

Nina Bjørkendal is a visual artist born and raised in Stockholm. She trained at the Rogaland School of Art and at the Bergen and Oslo Academies of Art, and has lived and worked in Kristiansand since 2012, including as a university lecturer at UiA's Department of Fine Art. Bjørkendal has held numerous exhibitions in the region and elsewhere in Norway. She works across a range of disciplines — printmaking, photography, and sculptural casting — and her work often explores signs, writing, information, and history.

Portrait of Henriette Haaversen Hultmann

Henriette Haaversen Hultmann

Henriette Haaversen Hultmann lives in Kristiansand and works at the University of Agder. She holds a master's degree in freshwater and marine ecology and a bachelor's degree in marine biology, from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Essex, respectively. She has worked for several environmental organisations in the UK, including on efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean. Her research focuses on microplastic occurrence in the Skagerrak, in both water and sediment.