CArrelé by British-Chinese textile designer and weaver, Elaine Yan Ling Ng for Nature Squared (NSQ), is a new collection of multi-purpose wall and floor tiles composed of eggshells. The project is part of NSQ’s long-term commitment to transforming natural waste into useful materials through a circular design approach. The ‘egg-loop’ ecosystem not only adds practical value to the material, it also provides a practical application for a natural material that would otherwise be discarded as landfill.

Approximately 250,000 tons of eggshell waste is produced annually worldwide and most goes to landfill, Ng’s extensive research on transforming sustainably sourced bio-waste, combined with NSQ’s heritage artisan skills and technical expertise, form the first range of products, CArrelé, handmade eggshell tiles, for The Calcium Brick Collection.

Ng developed a new composite formula base design extracted from eggshells using an ‘egg-loop’ ecosystem that adds practical value to the material. Each square metre of CArrelé uses over 3,000 eggshells, which are combined with a carefully selected bonding agent that fulfils standard industry specifications.

CArrelé comes in square and rectangular shapes making it infinitely versatile in contemporary interiors. Toasted has earthy tones ranging from cream to dark toast brown, while Natural Dye tiles feature hues achieved with indigo, chlorophyllin and madder. Hybrid tones are obtained through a combination of natural dying and toasting.

CArrelé is not a single product. It is a part of a larger, more extensive ongoing project devised by NSQ in collaboration with Ng. CArrelé goes beyond the creation of a single product and designs and implements a system that can be replicated in the future with a wide variety of different by-products and waste materials.

Photography: Tracy Wong, Miguel Nacianceno