Showcase

Payonke: Adaptive Mobiles

Weronika Turowska

Profile picture of Weronika Turowska

Weronika Turowska is a Polish biodesigner based in London, with an interest in material research and environmental, cultural storytelling. Her latest work involves investigation of agential materials with traditional crafts. With a focus on biodesign as a tool for storytelling and ecological engagement, she investigates how microbes and living materials can reshape our indoor environments into adaptive, responsive spaces.

Weronika Turowska is a Polish biodesigner based in London, with an interest in material research ...

What if the objects in our homes could sense, shift, and adapt like living things?

Payonke explores this possibility through active, hybrid materials that contain Bacillus subtilis spores— probiotic bacteria that react to moisture by changing shape, much like how pinecones open in the rain. Drawing from Polish pająki ludowe—traditional folk mobiles once made to bring prosperity into the home—this project reimagines the craft through a new perspective on materials. The result is a series of responsive, interlocking structures that act as natural indicators of indoor moisture, helping us reconceive our environments as more adaptive and health-conscious systems.

By treating microbes not as threats but as collaborators, Payonke proposes a new material language—where tradition meets innovation, and static objects give way to dynamic, living systems that support and enhance the spaces we inhabit.

Final work

Payonke: Adaptive Mobiles

Shape-shifting, agential objects that challenge conventional notions of materials, craft, and cohabitation with microbes.

Close-up of the object’s curl-and-open segment reacting to a water droplet — detecting moisture levels

Close up

Curl and open upon contact with a water droplet — detecting moisture levels

  • object - mobile presented on a clear background, vapour around it
  • On the picture there are two interlocked cork samples: left side: material curled - normal humidity, right side: material opened - high humidity
  • Mobile object 'Payonk' suspended against a clean background, casting a soft, diffuse shadow
Mobile object 'Payonk' hanging in an indoor corner, captured with a motion blur effect to suggest movement.

Research and process

Payonke - movement

Bacterial Spores – Hygromorphic, Shape-Shifting Behaviour

Agential Microbial Material: Cork embedded with bacterial spores that sense and respond to environmental moisture, enabling non-electronic, dynamic material transformation

  • one sample - Post bacterial spore application, the sample exhibits humidity sensing and a curling response.
  • Pipette-based spore application - one cork sample with a pipette spores application
  • Microscopic image showing the bacterial spores in green while there are a few bacterial cells stained in pink

Share this project

Payonke: Adaptive Mobiles

What if the objects in our homes could sense, shift, and adapt like living things? Payonke explores this possibility through active, hybrid materials that contain Bacillus subtilis spores— probiotic bacteria that react to moisture by changing shape, much like how pinecones...

A link to this page has been added to your clipboard

Browse related work