Healthy Materials Lab’s Exhibition honored as Best in Show by ASID NY Metro and Editors Choice Award by ICFF.
Parsons Healthy Materials Lab is honored to share that our exhibition for ICFF, Material Innovations with Ancient Roots, launching the new Materials Section at ICFF 2026 during NYCxDESIGN, received both the Best in Show Award by ASID NY Metro and an ICFF Editors Award for Sustainable Design.
Ema Capilla, Jonsara Ruth, Alison Mears and Kamilla Czesgi with the ICFF Editors Award. Image credit: Jenna Bascom
Visitors at the Healthy Materials Lab Exhibition. Image credit: Brian Buckley
Located adjacent to The Oasis, the exhibition highlighted exemplary materials for design that benefit humanity and our planet. Bringing together designers, makers, researchers, manufacturers, and educators, it offered a diverse array of samples, material research, installations, workshops, conversations, and hands-on engagement demonstrating how designers can make choices that restore rather than degrade natural resources, the climate, and human health. The exhibition also explored how healthier futures are not only dependent on creating new materials, but on rethinking the value, lifespan, repair, and reuse of the materials and products already in circulation.
The exhibition also explored the critical idea that healthier futures depend not only on creating new materials but also on rethinking the value, lifespan, repair, and reuse of materials and products already in circulation. Selected from the Donghia healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design and from pioneering partners in material research, the exhibition featured regenerative biogenic materials, healthier recycled alternatives, and novel technologies accelerating the production of healthy materials for design while supporting thriving ecological systems.
The exhibition also highlighted innovative approaches that transform surplus materials, post-consumer disposal and industrial byproducts, often considered waste, into healthier and valuable design resources. Free of toxic chemicals and produced with low carbon emissions, these materials chart a clear path forward for the design industry to help promote a healthier future for all. At the same time, the exhibition emphasized that reducing carbon and toxic exposures requires multiple strategies working together: repair, direct reuse, thoughtful material stewardship, and the design of products and systems that can endure, adapt, biodegrade safely, or return to future material cycles.
These awards reflect the collective energy, creativity, and commitment of an extraordinary community working toward healthier and more responsible material futures.
The exhibition featured works and contributions by Daniel Michalik, HeeChan Kim, Loose Parts by Jennifer June, Kamilla Csegzi Studio, MushLume, RISD Nature Lab, MycoWorks, Other Matter, and Lola Ben-Alon with GSAPP Natural Materials Lab. Material contributions and product samples were provided by Alkemis, Columbia Forest Products, Cosentino, Duracryl, Durra Panel, Ege Carpets, Habitat Matter, Hempitecture, Humanscale, Hydro, Rarify, TimberHP, mafi, nanimarquina, and many others, all advancing design toward regenerative and climate-positive futures. Together, these contributions demonstrate that material innovation can take many forms: from developing plant- and mineral-based alternatives to extending the life of existing products and resources through repair, reuse, and adaptive thinking.
Loop Lab on display. Image credit: Brian Buckley
We recognize these recognitions belong to everyone who contributed to the exhibition, from our team who designed our booth to exhibitors, material innovators, fabricators, collaborators, educators, students, and industry partners.
The Materials Section was envisioned as a collaborative platform bringing together diverse voices and approaches, reshaping how and what we build with.
The conversations throughout the week reinforced a growing understanding that healthier, lower-carbon futures will not come from a single material solution, but will instead stem from a broader cultural shift in how we design, specify, maintain, repair, and value the built environment over time.
We are deeply grateful to our financial sponsors: Hydro, Duracryl, mafi, Columbia Forest Products, and Durra Panel, whose support helped make the exhibition possible. And to partners who lent or donated their products for the booth design: Alkemis, Consentino, Ege, Habitat Matter, Humanscale, nanimarquina, Rarify, and TimberHP.
We also want to acknowledge the many members of the Parsons Healthy Materials Lab community, past and present, whose years of research, experimentation, teaching, advocacy, and material investigation laid the groundwork for this moment.A special thank you goes to the ICFF project team from HML whose dedication brought the exhibition to life: August Rust, Ema Capilla, and Kamilla Czesgi led by Jonsara Ruth.
Looking Forward
The response to the new Materials Section at ICFF affirmed the growing momentum surrounding healthier, regenerative, and circular material practices within the design industry. It also demonstrated a growing appetite for conversations around repair, longevity, adaptive reuse, and responsible stewardship of existing resources. We are excited to continue building conversations and collaborations that support healthier homes, communities, ecosystems, and futures.
Thank you to everyone who visited the exhibition, participated in workshops and conversations, contributed materials and ideas, and helped create an inspiring and hopeful space for dialogue and discovery.
Healthy Materials Lab Exhibition at ICFF 2026. Image credit: Jenna Bascom
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