This design studio spent 10 years perfecting a lampshade made out of bacteria

The Cenit lighting system is grown to order. That’s because the collection of pendant and table lamps, designed by Mexican biotech company Polybion and Mexican design studio Natural Urbano, uses lampshades grown from bacteria. Polybion calls the biomaterial used in the lamps Celium, and it’s made from bacteria grown with fruit waste. Developing Celium took more than 10 years of R&D, Polybion cofounder Alexis Gómez-Ortigoza tells Fast Company, and the process is fully integrated. It involves transforming agro-industrial fruit waste into a growth medium that can produce its own bacteria, cult...