Colours of Deconstruction — Anaïs Eriksson Portfolio

COLOURS OF DECONSTRUCTION

Diploma Project
2026

Colours of Deconstruction is a ceramic research project that explores material origins, resource consumption, and the ecological consequences of raw material extraction. The project is based on the question of where the materials used in ceramic processes come from, under what conditions they are extracted and processed, and within which material and societal contexts they exist.

For this project, materials were collected from construction sites and demolition projects in Vienna and thereby rescued from landfill disposal. Instead of relying on industrially extracted raw materials, these waste materials were crushed, processed, and transformed into glaze ingredients. Through melting samples and material experiments, ceramic surfaces emerged that speak of demolition, transformation, and material cycles.

The final object consists of four different modular tile forms and is formally inspired by the stepped, layered structures of open-pit mining sites. The seating object invites viewers to experience materiality not only visually, but also through touch.

credits:

Sarah Howrad
Her book Circular Design was a major source of inspiration for me in steering my work towards this kind of research

Agne Kucerenkaite
Inspired me by showing that you can actually make beautifully coloured glazes from waste materials

Alternative Ceramic Supplies
also encouraged me to replace mineral waste with my own glaze raw materials.

Max Lamb X Tajimi Tiles
inspired me to transform a flat tile into a three-dimensional one to build objects, thereby bringing my research into the three-dimensional space.

Ludvig Hyrefelt
works with round tiles as well and showed me his method for building plaster moulds to cast stoneware.

Elliott Denny
I find his approach to modular ceramic systems for furniture and design very inspiring

„Literally everything around you in this world is either grown or dug out of the ground. That is literally where everything comes from.“

– Mind Shift (Episode 1)

My research for this project and the search for the origins of my materials began with a journey. Together with two friends, Anatol Stelzhammer and Caro Laa I travelled to the Westerwald, in Germany, to visit various clay pits where the Company “Sibelco” extracts its raw materials.

We were given a guided tour of the entire plant – from delivery, through processing, right up to the finished, packaged clay. An employee explained to us in detail the individual processing stages and, at the same time, spoke about the future of high-quality clay deposits. Particularly striking was the statement that white clay in Germany could become scarce within the next few decades if extraction continues at its current rate.

link to my written thesis:
https://phaidra.bibliothek.uni-ak.ac.at/detail/o:76206

travel buddys & drone photo credits:
Anatol Stelzhammer & Caro Laa

For my project, I visited current construction and demolition sites and collected materials there. A series of photographs was created that works as a documentary snapshot of the origins of my materials.

Materials are extracted, processed, incorporated into buildings, used and finally removed again. The associated environmental and social costs often remain invisible in the process.

In my work, I aim to restore a sense of presence to these places and materials. By placing them in a new creative context, I seek to reveal their origins and history of demolition and destruction, and to give them a new life.

Demolition Sites:

St. Marx
A self-managed, non-commercial cultural venue was cleared and demolished to make way for the construction of an events hall, resulting in the loss of years of voluntary work and established social structures.

Lamarr
This construction project is a prime example of speculative urban development linked to the Signa insolvency, in which a shell that had already been built was almost entirely demolished due to a new investor – resulting in an enormous waste of resources.

Nordwestbahnhof
The former railway station site is being extensively demolished and redeveloped to make way for a new residential and commercial district; particular criticism has been levelled at the loss of existing increasing soil sealing, and the high consumption of resources.

In order to develop my glazes, the materials first had to be processed. I began by carrying out melting tests to find out which of the substances actually consisted of mineral components.

This was followed by what was probably the most time-consuming stage of the process: crushing and sieving the materials. Whilst materials such as clay, brick or glass were relatively easy to work with, harder components such as concrete and stone first had to be calcined (fired at approx. 900 °C) to make them more brittle and
thereby enabling them to be crushed by machine.

Once all the samples had been numbered and categorised, the process of sieving them into different degrees of fineness began. Subsequently, initial test firings were carried out on small sample tiles. This resulted in an initial colour spectrum within which the project moves. In this deconstructed process, which was new to me, the title of my work eventually took shape: Colours of Deconstruction.

Anaïs Eriksson

Anaïs Eriksson Designer & Material Researcher