Aalto University: Designer Sonja Dallyn turns ecofertilizer into aha moments

Last May, Sonja Dallyn received an interesting email: a research team developing eco fertilizer called ‘putretti’ was looking for a design student to join their team.

‘They needed an exhibition assistant for the Cooler Planet exhibition on climate change solutions. I had presented my own work at the exhibition the previous year, and I thought that my expertise would be useful to them’, Dallyn recalls.

After getting the job, Dallyn started her work by having a long discussion with researcher Hanna Vanhanen. Putretti is made from compost and ash, but Dallyn was more interested in the impact rather than the process.

‘That’s the first thing people often think about at an exhibition: what does this thing do, what benefits does it have and why it is important? That was the starting point for the entire exhibition.’