BIOMATERIALS LIBRARY
Biomaterials Library is the first publicly accessible physical collection of its kind in the Baltic States. Based at SODAS 2123 in Vilnius and continuously expanding online, it brings together biomaterial samples, experimental processes and design objects from Lithuania, the Baltic region and beyond.
The idea grew from a simple gap. Material libraries often exist within universities, laboratories and specialist institutions, yet the knowledge they hold tends to remain inside academic or professional circles. Biomaterials Library was created to open that knowledge to a much wider public and make it something that can be seen, touched, compared and discussed. It is a place where young children and school groups, students, artists, designers, architects, researchers and companies can encounter unfamiliar materials and begin asking what else our material world could become.
Biomaterials Library operates as an open-access knowledge platform and an infrastructure for exchange. Materials are presented not only as finished surfaces or objects, but through their biological, renewable or waste-derived sources, transformation processes, properties, possible applications and end-of-life pathways. Placed side by side, the samples reveal that biomaterials are not universal solutions, but evolving practices shaped by local resources, skills, technologies and contexts.
Through its collection, exhibitions, workshops, open recipes and collaborations, the Library connects artists, designers, architects, educators and scientists with start-ups, manufacturers, businesses, funders and cultural organisations. Its role is to help knowledge move beyond individual studios and laboratories—making early experiments visible, supporting dialogue across disciplines and opening pathways towards further research, partnerships and responsible real-world applications.
It is both an archive and an active meeting point: a place where material knowledge is collected, shared, questioned and allowed to keep evolving.
Founded and curated by Austėja Platūkytė
Organised by NGO “Medžiagotyra”
Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture