Agnès Giannaros

Agnès is a multidisciplinary designer with Service, Product and Interaction Design expertise. 

She has a strong interest in Systems Thinking when designing for a more sustainable world and a more circular economy. Her projects seek to have a positive impact in people's lives by being beautiful, creative and playful.  

YLIKO

YLIKO (material in greek) is the name of a hyperlocal material research project in the capital of Greece, Athens. Using an undervalued, underutilised and abundant resource of the greek capital: the bitter orange, to create materials and products that can be locally sourced and manufactured.

The underlying socio-economical context of the project is the material waste we are facing nowadays - ranging from the pollution created during raw material extraction to production and manufacture. The project’s goal was to create a 100% natural material made from bitter oranges in Athens, functional and that could be recycled into new material life cycles.

The result was YLIKO - neratzi, a robust particle material board, which is fully bio-bening and recyclable. The material has been tested to evaluate its properties and proved that YLIKO - neratzi is machinable, hydrophobic and fire resistant. In addition to the material, plans for a future production facility in Athens have been designed in line with the city's economic situation in order to scale the material production. 

Field research and primary material experiments were conducted in Athens, whereas  technical experiments and material testing were conducted in London.