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Alkesh Parmar (Materials Innovation, 2014)

Alkesh Parmar

Shortlisted in 2014 for Materials Innovation

Alkesh Parmar is a London-based multidisciplinary designer, artist and inventor who is passionate about sustainable products and systems. His MA at the Royal College of Art’s School of Materials, encouraged him to combine craft techniques with sustainable thinking and he defines his own discipline where art meets design and innovation.

Early materials research included combining traditional metalwork with glassblowing techniques with the aim to fuse the two materials together. Alkesh is creative founder of APeel Materials, a patent-pending new process for transforming waste citrus peel into a versatile new material with a wide range of potential uses without having a need to add additional binders. In fact early stage experiments have shown that the citrus rind material has the potential to be used within additive printing. Citrus peel accounts for around 50% of the fruit as a whole and the remaining pith and fibrous matter is a waste product that mostly ends up in landfill.

Alkesh is currently in discussion with Clarks to produce a sustainable alternative heel component to their current polyurethane heels. In addition the company has been commissioned by a L’Oreal owned company Pureology and PlaySam, a producer of high quality toy cars, to produce material samples for their products and in the case of Pureology, packaging.