Korvaa – the world's first shoe made from three microbially produced materials, on show in Fiskars

When: 7 June – 30 August 2026, daily 11–18

Where: Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale, Dew exhibition, Coppersmithy, Fiskarsvägen 333, Fiskars (Raasepori)

Tickets: €18 / reduced €10 / Museum Card €0; under-18s free. The ticket grants access to both of the Biennale's main exhibitions.

The Korvaa microbial concept shoe is the world's first shoe to combine three microbially produced materials: bacterial nanocellulose, mycelium and PHA biopolymer. Each one is produced by microbes and replaces a fossil-based component with a material that is fully bio-based and biodegradable.

– Upper: bacterial nanocellulose — a naturally fermented, high-performance material (Modern Synthesis) – Base matrix: PHA biopolymer — grown in water, then 3D-printed (Ourobio)

– Sole cushioning: mycelium, grown in seven days directly into that matrix (Ecovative)

Because these materials are made by microbes, microbes can break them down again — so they return to nature without leaving microplastics behind.

Making the shoe took two years. The final shoe required countless material trials.

Korvaa is an experimental collaboration between science, design and storytelling. Finnish science communications agency Photino has documented the project from the very beginning, work that is also part of the documentary Planet of the Microbes.

Korvaa belongs naturally in the Biennale's Dew exhibition: the materials are made in water by microbes. The bioreactor installation shows what it looks like when microbes produce materials. 

More information: https://fiskarsvillage.fi/en/see-and-do/events-and-exhibitions/fiskars-village-art-design-biennale/