Blended Materials

Tom van Soest

Tom van Soest makes handmade interior tiles from local waste. He works with industrial clay residues, unique materials, and colors you won’t find anywhere else. He doesn’t use any raw materials, so: when it's gone, it’s gone. With every single interior he adds creativity and reduces debris.

Most of the rubble he uses comes from construction and demolition waste, which accounts for about 35% of Europe’s annual waste. Only a small portion is reprocessed into high-quality materials. Moreover, between 70 and 90% of these waste materials – including clay – are newly extracted, a fact that has major consequences for the landscape and nature.

We talk to Tom, three years after his participation with StoneCycling in the very first edition of the Secrid Talent Podium. Known for its bricks produced from waste material, StoneCycling has since evolved into FRONT. Tom himself is starting over with Blended Materials. We discuss craftsmanship versus large-scale production, the distinctive role of beauty in a circular world, and the importance of following your heart.

Hi Tom, it’s great to talk about your new plans together, but first, let’s go back to where it all started. Were you always a creative kid?

I grew up in Venlo and attended a Waldorf/Steiner school, at which creativity and nature were paramount. Being good at painting, drawing, and coloring, that suited me well. It was pretty obvious I’d never become an accountant, but that I’d be working with my hands. That’s just what makes me happiest.

For a long time, I wanted to become an architect, but at the last minute, I chose a vocational school specializing in graphic design and media, instead. At the time, I also had a small graphic design agency with Ward Massa, one of my primary school friends. I’d create things like posters and websites, and he’d sell them. Funnily enough, our agency was called Clay Design. A pure coincidence, as I’d never worked with clay at that point. We chose it because you can use it to make all kinds of different shapes.

In 2014, we resumed our partnership. I had finished my studies at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and had founded StoneCycling, now FRONT. I graduated with the Blended Materials project, in which I investigated creating new materials from waste only. My final project was a kind of blender that could be used to grind construction debris into a fine grain. I presented it together with various “evidence materials,” and Ward helped me take it from the shed to the market.

The result was the WasteBasedBrick, a brick made solely from construction waste. Can you tell us more about that?

I went to art school because I loved making stuff. But I quickly started asking myself whether there was much value to making yet another chair or table. You can buy all those things at a thrift store. Humankind uses far more raw materials than our planet can sustain, and there’s already so much stuff out there, so why make new things? We should be designing things that clean up some of the mess we’ve created, or that solve a problem.

That became my motivation, but in truth, it was really just an excuse to make beautiful things without feeling guilty. My first idea was a kind of scrap-wood table in the familiar style of Piet Hein Eek. But I wanted to use waste stone for my tabletops, since there’s so much construction waste in the world. That was a disaster, it all cracked and broke.

To find out what I was doing wrong, I decided to make smaller tiles. That didn’t work either, because I didn’t have a tile press and my raw materials weren’t stable enough yet. But I had created recipes that proved I could create something without using expensive raw materials. That’s why I decided to collaborate with a manufacturer.

I ended up at a brick factory in Beesel, which, funnily enough, I’ve been back at lately. We went into their lab to explore what’s possible. Two years later, the first bricks for a house in Rotterdam rolled off the production line. That’s really how StoneCycling started. We won the Dutch Design Award and received a lot of media attention. It was a tremendous success.

The more interiors we create, the more we clean up.

You started working with demolition bricks due to the sheer quantity of construction waste. How about that?

Every year, we produce mountains of construction and demolition waste worldwide, with Europe alone generating something like 500 million tons per year or more. That’s over a third of all EU waste. Take a moment to think about that. In the US and China, those numbers are even higher.

If you do a bit of research into those numbers, you’ll probably read that a lot of that waste is recovered and put to good use, but in reality, very little is recycled to a high standard. Most is landfilled or used for filling work, like road construction or filling old mines and pits.

Since these materials are removed from the cycle and can therefore no longer be reused or recycled, they yield very little circular value. This means most raw materials in construction are newly extracted, often leading to poor working conditions and resource depletion. As a designer, I felt this is a problem I can help solve.

StoneCycling – now FRONT – is growing into a successful company. Why have you decided to start over again?

When we started, Ward and I immediately decided to move from the shed to a big factory, so we could make an impact on a large scale. One outcome of this decision was the construction of an enormous apartment complex in Manhattan, using the brick I had designed at the academy. I’m extremely proud that one person with a crazy idea and some samples can have such an impact.

After many such projects, the WasteBasedBrick has moved to a new manufacturer that can truly produce on a large scale, making it more affordable and thus more impactful. While that’s amazing, I myself felt called in a different direction.

For the past ten years, we have been exclusively focused on sustainability and market innovation, not on the product itself. At StoneCycling, the final outcome was the brick. Of course, we were able to say it was made from waste, but ultimately, that’s what everyone will be doing. I felt a deep longing for more experimentation and creativity.

Ward will continue with FRONT, which has now become a platform for bringing innovative and sustainable building materials, in addition to WasteBasedBrick, to market. I’m going to be creating beautiful new things with Blended Materials. Because that’s what makes me happy. When everyone is circular, design will be the distinguishing factor. I want to return to that.

What beautiful new things will you make? And will you still be pursuing the same goal of clearing debris?

This time, I’ll be making handmade interior tiles. My goal is to not use any raw materials, so nothing needs to be excavated. I’m always cleaning something up. And the waste has to be genuinely local, sourced from within a radius of 15 kilometers. Beyond that, it doesn’t really matter what I do.

My only assignment: make something beautiful. In truth, sustainability is no longer the focus of my product. It has become secondary – a given. My primary focus is design. I want people to like what I’ve created. Only then will I tell them it has no footprint, because it’s made entirely by hand from local waste.

I spent a good two years working on a new business plan perfectly suited to me. Coincidentally, in 2022, the factory where we started StoneCycling went bankrupt, and I was allowed to move in to develop my new plans. It was a lot of fun to dive back into the recipes at that location and return to tiles, which is how my journey initially began.

Why do you choose to work by hand?

This time, I’ll be intentionally starting on a very small scale and making an impact that way. I want to reveal the beauty of those waste materials. That’s what I really love to do. This is very hard to do on a large scale, but when working on a small scale, you’re able to experiment and show how beautiful something can be.

In a large production line, everything is fixed. You can‘t simply stop an operational line to try out something new. You're one of many products, which means you always have to wait your turn. And you need to be careful when trying out new recipes to not break the machine. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity.

This is why I want to work by hand instead of using existing production lines and machines. In this way, you’re much more flexible to make constant adjustments and create truly inspiring designs.

I want my aunt to be able to order just one square meter.

And why did you choose interior tiles this time?

To sell bricks, you need to produce a lot of them at a low price. But you can always find a use for a few nice tiles in an interior.

In your bathroom stall, on the kitchen wall, or elsewhere in your bathroom, for example, they can become more like works of art. Since these spaces usually don’t involve large surface areas, you can consider spending a little more money on them. That has a much lower impact on your construction budget than, for example, your entire facade, that becomes five times more expensive.

Working indoors also saves a lot of hassle. Manufacturing for outside conditions means dealing with frost, thaw, and obtaining all kinds of certificates to prove your materials provide weather protection. Indoors, you’re dealing with room temperatures. This means products don’t need to boast state-of-the-art performance levels, which, in my case, frees me up to focus more on their design.

Are your tiles also accessible to consumers or will you be working with architects again?

Yes, it’s really important to me that someone like my aunt is also able to order them online. This is a big part of the feedback I received over the past ten years. People often wanted to use our bricks, but I always had to tell them we only start at one hundred square meters. This time around, I also want to be able to offer a single square meter.

I’ll also be working on a lot of unique projects, like in museums. I, for example, envision a really cool tableau at an entrance or a composition of tiles made from local waste.

And then I hope to attract the right architects who are eager to promote my vision, because, at the end of the day, that’s my most important market. I think my products will be highly suitable for them in the future. The more interiors we create together, the more we clean up.

Are you still able to produce on a large scale working by hand?

Yes, you are. At some point in the past, we decided to replace people with machines, but instead of using a machine, you can also return to using a lot of hands. I believe we can return to how we did things 50, 60, 70 years ago – even in ancient times. That has always worked. Rather than investing in an extremely expensive machine, we can reinvest in labor.

By doing so, you’re also investing in human craftsmanship and creativity again, which, in our age of efficiency, sales targets, and burnouts, is incredibly important. My vision is that there will soon be many people with their own workplace. We’ll all have our own small production facilities for large and small orders in the Netherlands, and later also internationally.

Right now, I’m still working alone, but I plan to bring people into production within a year to make the tiles, so I can focus more on research and introducing new waste streams and recipes. And I want to continue creating specials myself.

How far along is your production setup?

I’ve worked hard over the past two years, but ultimately, it all comes down to funding. To get started, you need savings to make good investments. I managed to do that earlier this year.

The first prototypes and a marketing plan are ready. I’m currently moving to a new workplace, even closer to home in Venlo, where the first tiles will be made. We plan to launch the company in October.

I’m working with a marketing and branding agency, which is helping me set up the website, launch products on social media, and everything else that needs doing. I’m still a novice when it comes to sales, so I need help with that.

When it’s gone, it’s gone – and I have to find another color.

What are some examples of local waste you use in your recipes?

My former neighbor at the factory in Beesel is a demolition contractor who grinds demolition waste into a fine grain, which is really handy. He also receives a lot of stony waste, so I regularly check to see if he has anything new.

Looking around the industrial area here, you’ll also find places with clay waste. I don’t want to dig it up, but I do need its plasticity. A lot of clay is too contaminated to be used by manufacturers. Usually, it just gets dumped, but for me, it’s an amazing raw circular material.

Another bonus is that Sint-Joris, the old factory I’ve been working in to prepare my new plans, used to produce glazed bricks. They still have glaze residues from a hundred years of production here, which they stored in a barrel for reorders. No one wanted those leftovers when the factory went bankrupt. For me, they’re great for adding color. Using recycled materials, you usually end up with gray, pink, or orange. But sometimes, you may want yellow, bright blue, or fluorescent green.

If, for example, someone orders a lot of green, at some point, I’ll simply run out. When it’s gone, it’s gone. There’s a considerable chance I won’t be able to find the same color and so I’ll need to find another shade of green. For me, that adds to the appeal.

What are your dreams for the next ten years?

Dreams? To be honest, I’m living my dream right now. I spent two years asking myself: “What are my dreams? What do I really want to do?” I could have looked for a different job or switched industries. But this is my dream.

If my current plans work out, I’ll be very happy. I hope the orders will come in and I will get to work on a new collection every quarter. I hope to keep creating new works around a particular theme, like water or the color white. My idea is to turn these into large tableaux and fill up a portfolio.

In this way, I can create collections based on inspirations and show how beautiful something can be, without needing to feel guilty. Acting from the feeling, “I‘m allowed to create, because when I do, I’m contributing something.” That just blows my mind. If I can work like that while earning some money, I won’t be able to wait for the weekend or my vacation to end, just so I can get back to work.

Finally, what’s the most important message you want to convey?

Find out what you most enjoy doing. I know that sounds a little boring, and it’s also a lot easier said than done. I talk about this with my friends a lot. Many are constantly busy, doing things that aren’t what they like to do most. I myself ended up suffering a few burnouts this way during my StoneCycling journey.

I often found myself under a lot of stress these past ten years and asked myself: “What have I gotten myself into?” I had a second child on the way and was continuing doing something that really didn’t suit me. I was never home – both literally and figuratively. In all honesty, I wouldn’t wish that kind of stress on anyone.

Today, I do what I love the most and am able to be truly present with myself and my family. It makes such a difference when you enjoy what you do every day. That’s what I want to teach my daughters: have the courage to follow your heart, experiment, and make lots of mistakes. It’ll be okay. If you stay true to yourself and visualize where you want to go, it will happen.

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Blended Materials

Tom van Soest

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