future protein
Year
2023-24
Adaptation to the future environment: from agriculture to aquaculture
Future Protein is a speculative design project exploring mussels as a key to sustainable living and climate adaptation. Developed during the Hungry EcoCities S+T+ARTS Residency, the project introduces Mussel ID—a digital platform that translates the ecological benefits of mussel farming into measurable environmental credits. As a co-creator, I led research on mussel ecology, co-developed the model’s architecture, and coordinated the transformation of mussel byproducts into design materials and public food rituals. If you’re interested, check the product design from mussel shells - YPCS
By introducing mussels as both meal and material, Future Protein blends biology, data, and culture. It reimagines aquaculture not only as food production but as a platform for ecological storytelling, spatial design, and community resilience. The HungryEcoCities project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101069990.
From these explorations, in collaboration with Kin Dee restaurant, we crafted three novel mussel-based dishes and led a food-sharing event at Studio Other Spaces in Berlin. There, guests interacted with the digital farm prototype, tasted unfamiliar yet tasty flavors, and received hand-cast bio-cement cubes—each representing the ecological footprint of their dinner. These objects, produced from recycled mussel shells using AI-aided generative design and 3D printing, offered a tangible narrative of consumption, transformation, and return.
This led to the development of Mussel ID, a remote-sensing digital prototype that allows users to simulate mussel farms, estimating their output in protein, nitrogen removal, and carbon storage. The platform invites users to not only design mussel farms in any location in the world, but to imagine food systems that adapt to rising seas and changing climates.
To anchor this speculative model in lived experience, we conducted field research at a mussel farm in Tuscany and organized an aquatic foraging expedition in the Netherlands.
Future Protein explores a new relationship between humans, marine ecologies, and food systems—one where mussels, often overlooked, become central agents of environmental and cultural transformation.
We began with a question: what if our diets could not only nourish us, but also restore the environment? Mussels, with their quiet, regenerative labor—filtering water, storing CO₂, and enriching biodiversity—offered the answer. Their simplicity is their strength, they clean and improve ecosystems they inhabit.
technical facts
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Team: IM-A Studio (Katya Bryskina & Nataly Khadziakova)
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Dev team: Natalie Mezhetskaya, Artem Konevskikh
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Videographer: Angel Li
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Project website: futureprotein.space
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Project video: future protein by IM-A Studio
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Locations: Mussel farm C.E.S.I.T (Tuscany), aquatic foraging (Yerseke, NL), exhibition (Berlin)
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Residency: Hungry EcoCities S+T+ARTS, in collaboration with Carlo Ratti Associati, EatThis, Studio Other Spaces (SOS), Brno University of Technology, In4Art and Gluon
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Science: Brno University of Technology
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3d print with support from CRA Carlo Ratti Associati and Space Caviar.
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Menu in collaboration with Kin Dee
achievements
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Integrated biowaste into high-value materials, closing the loop between consumption and design
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Initiated speculative rituals for eating in a climate-altered future