Architect Mále Uribe on salt’s potential as a design material

Beautiful Homes (BH): How do you define your approach to design and material exploration?

Mále Uribe (MU): I see design as a research tool that helps me to communicate ideas about things I care about. This usually centres on contemporary material culture and how we see, transform and consume materials around us. Sometimes, these investigations and experimental processes end up in specific material results that resonate with architecture and interior design. At other times, they result in more hybrid and reflective bodies of work. Sometimes, it’s both.

BH: What led to your interest in salt as a design material?

MU: I became quite obsessed with salt in 2018 while visiting the Atacama Desert in Chile. I was reading about ‘new materialism’ at the time. This is a contemporary philosophy which reframes our hierarchical relationship with matter. As I looked at the strange and unexpected saline formations in the desert, I suddenly understood what the ‘new materialist’ approach meant. For the first time in my life, I saw salt—supposedly inert and ordinary—as an autonomous and transformative mineral capable of changing itself and the world around it.

BH: How was your experience working with it?

MU: The project started as a multidimensional research project to look at salt in the Atacama. I was interested in the many discarded forms that it was found in the desert after mining and industrial processes. However, I did face several challenges in trying to create something with it. Salt is very autonomous and constantly reacting to the environment. It can absorb and release water. It crystallises in different shapes and structures depending on its mineral compositions.

BH: Could you elaborate on how ‘Salt Imaginaries’ took shape?

MU: The design process threw me into the world of science and chemistry. I had to study and collaborate with other disciplines to understand the rather unexpected results of my experiments. I learnt from its properties and processes and used design as a tool to guide them. This was the first stage. Using very simple casting techniques, I created a stable tile that could be arranged to create an immersive salt environment.

On returning to Chile, I began looking into the lithium mining industry. It produces tons of discarded salts that are piled up in the desert. I developed a research project and a technology that would allow me to transform these discarded salts into a stable material. For this, I used slightly more complex processes in a lab. For this, I collaborated with Dr Alvaro Videla, who led the mining laboratory of the School of Engineering at Universidad Católica de Chile.

BH: Do you see the interest and exploration of salt as a material growing?

MU: Salt is found almost everywhere in the world. We even carry it in our blood. We can’t live without it. People in design and innovation will carry on exploring the potential of this fantastic resource. Given how eco-conscious climate change is making us, there is more curiosity about exploring abundant and local materials that not only offer efficient physical solutions and beautiful palettes but also a deeper connection to the land. I hope that this process will help us to think more locally and creatively about our natural resources. Salt has a huge potential—in its ability to grow and crystallise, and in the endless sensorial effects that it can bring into our surroundings.

BH: What do you think about the significance of a forecast like ColourNext?

MU: Being aware of innovative and disruptive design approaches can help us consider new imaginaries and develop a deeper connection to our practice. Forecasts tend to see and connect tendencies that are rising at the same time. Overseeing them together and building links between these innovative trends can be a powerful tool to reflect on the direction of design as a discipline, to stay fresh and to acknowledge that the way we see the world is always in flux.