Joanne Odisho's Mod-u Eggshell Lamp Wins 2026 Australian Design Award

Joanne Odisho's Mod-u, a modular lamp made from discarded eggshells and a biopolymer, won the 2026 Australian Furniture Design Award and will move toward commercial production with Stylecraft.

The award includes a working partnership with the Australian furniture company Stylecraft, the first concrete path from a studio prototype to a retail object.

What is Mod-u made of?

Mod-u is constructed from rearrangeable blocks. The blocks consist of eggshells collected from local cafés. Odisho sterilizes and dries the shells, then grinds them into a powder.

The powder is mixed with a biopolymer. The mixture becomes a moldable material that sets without firing. The pieces dry naturally for about a week.

No dye is added. The blocks retain the subtle color variations of the source shells, producing warm, uneven tones across each piece.

How does the modular system work?

The lamp's name pairs "modular" and "you," placing creative control with the user. Odisho has framed the project as a lamp that can grow, shrink, and change with the spaces people inhabit.

Owners can adjust the silhouette after a move, after a furniture shuffle, or after a smaller shift in taste. One arrangement might suit a living room corner; another could anchor a bedside table.

The pieces have a chunky, stacked quality. Mod-u reads almost like a tabletop sculpture before its lighting function becomes apparent.

Why eggshells?

Odisho sources shells from cafés that would otherwise discard them. The shells give the composite a recognizable material character.

The material sets without firing, which removes the energy demand of kiln-fired ceramics. The biopolymer binder carries the structural role.

Reconfiguration is the more convincing sustainability argument, though. A lamp that stays in use longer offsets the manufacturing footprint of its replacement.

What comes next?

Stylecraft will work with Odisho on commercial production. The partnership is the next stage for a design that has until now existed as a studio concept and award submission.

The challenge for any prototype at this stage is scale. Tactile, experimental qualities can flatten when production tooling replaces handwork. Whether Mod-u's handmade finish survives that translation will determine how much of its current character reaches buyers.

What does the design ask of its owner?

Mod-u presumes that the buyer will rearrange it. Reconfiguration is not a one-time assembly. It is a recurring relationship with the object.

Most lighting on the market treats the fixture as a finished product and the user as a passive recipient. Mod-u rejects that arrangement. The eggshells supply a visible origin; the movable blocks supply a reason to keep the lamp in the room.

A commercial run that preserves both the material irregularity and the reconfigurable structure would carry Mod-u past its current stage. A run that smooths either one would leave the design with only its origin story.