What if the end of a tree’s life wasn’t an ending at all?
Every year, Utrecht produces vast amounts of wood waste such as branches from city trees, leftover construction wood and bark. Currently, most of it ends up as compost or is incinerated. But what if this “waste” could tell a different story? From local trees… to local materials. From waste… to possibility. That’s exactly what URWOOD explores in their new video. URWOOD received Seed Funding from the EWUU institute 4 a Circular Society in 2024.
URWOOD is an interdisciplinary project bringing together TU/e, WUR, UU, and the City of Utrecht, combining engineering, material science, and design imagination. Their work transforms discarded wood into high-performance, biobased composites that are non-toxic, biodegradable, and repair friendly. Experiments with particle size, natural binders like methyl cellulose and sodium alginate, and mix ratios created pastes, putties, and materials. They are suitable for the fabrication of new materials that work, last, and carry a story.
But URWOOD is about more than materials. It’s about community, craft, and co-creation. Workshops at Buurman Utrecht brought together woodworkers, designers, repair specialists, and social craft groups to test prototypes, offering hands-on feedback on handling, finish, and durability. By connecting science with the local maker culture, URWOOD ensures that its materials fit real practices while inspiring new possibilities for circular design.
The project’s new video captures this journey: from discarded branches to innovative materials, from researchers’ labs to makers’ workshops, showing how science, craft, and city life come together to shape a circular future.
Are you a maker? A researcher? A city-dreamer? URWOOD invites everyone to join in reimagining the life of our wood. Get in touch with the team for more information:
URWOOD Team
Bahar Barati (TU/e), Tomaso Mangrini (former WUR (now TU/e)), Lu Zhang (WUR), Emma Luitjens (former UU (now TU/e)), Maxim Meijer (TU/e), Bianca Co (TU/e), Vinzenz Unterhauser (TU/e), Diya Samit (TU/e).
Want to know more about this project?
The Urwood Video is one of the deliverables for the URWOOD project. Please find the other deliverables including the Making Report, Community Engagement Report and the Nuggets Report on their project page.