People / Olivia Webb
Olivia Webb is a spatial designer and researcher currently studying at the Royal College of Art. Her practice explores how unstandardized and perishable materials might inform alternative building systems. She develops designs in dialogue with materials, allowing their properties to shape the outcome. Over the past year, she has focused on floriculture waste, investigating how discarded flowers can become architectural materials and systems. Her work focuses on adaptable systems that can respond to contexts.
Made with Love – Rose Petal Tile
I run a tile factory in my bedroom, my kitchen, and sometimes my bathroom. Working as an emerging designer in London, I developed the product within my flat using a single accessible binder and discarded floral waste sourced for free.
On the last Sunday of every month, I collect out-of-date flowers from my local Sainsbury’s and Co-op before they are thrown away. Marius at my local Co-op now keeps them behind the counter for me. The texture and variation of each tile are therefore determined by the petals available rather than a controlled manufacturing process. No two tiles are the same. Instead, these constraints have led to a modular system that embraces variation, allowing discarded flowers to become part of the surfaces we live with every day.