Product design, research




TERRA FORMATA - 2025

Terra Formata explores contaminated soil from former clay pits in Courtrai as an alternative raw material for ceramics. While clay extraction has long shaped the region’s ceramic industry, these same pits also play a largely invisible role as landfill sites within waste processing systems. Through ceramic experimentation, Terra Formata brings this hidden material back to the surface. 

Contaminated soils are tested both as clay bodies and glazes, revealing a rich color palette shaped by firing temperature and the soil’s (mineral/waste) content. Beyond their aesthetic qualities, the experiments demonstrate how the ceramic process can immobilise heavy metals and toxic substances, preventing their further dispersal into the environment. Moreover, the soil's remarkable melting properties open up potential pathways toward food-safe applications.

By transforming soil that is normally buried, discarded, or considered hazardous into ceramic objects, Terra Formata questions what local resources remain available to us today.













CONTEXT
Designer in Residence, Designregio Kortrijk and Abby Museum, 2025 

SUPPORTED BY
Designregio Kortrijk, Flanders State of The Art
THANKS TO
Bioterra nv, Wienerberger, Academie Kortrijk
IMAGES BY
Dieter Van Canegem






The designed objects are a first exploration of the material on a larger scale. The objects reflect and embody the changing landscape. Stacked, they appear innocent, opened they reveal their hidden contents. They simultaneously conceal and reveal the new local resources.

 


katoherbots@gmail.com
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Kato Herbots (BE, 2001) is a product designer and researcher with a material-driven design approach. Her practice proposes alternative scenarios by critically examining the relationships between human, environment, materials and context.

With a situated approach, she explores how materials and objects are embedded in larger ecological, social and temporal networks, and how she can actively intervene in these . This results in various typologies: from product design to research-driven installations