A NATIVE wetland weed that could become a building material is among the ideas being explored as Fremantle Design Week challenges people to imagine a different future.

The third biennial festival, running from October 16 to 25, will feature more than 60 exhibitions, talks, tours, workshops, open studios and special events across Fremantle.

DesignFreo director and festival creative director Pippa Hurst told the Herald this year’s theme, Imagine, was about finding positive responses to some of the major challenges facing society.

“We have so many things that seem negative,” Ms Hurst told the Herald.

“But there is positive change happening, and we really wanted to concentrate on some of the positive things that are out there to give people a bit of inspiration.”

She said the festival reflected a shift in design from sustainability towards regeneration.

• Researchers at UWA have found a novel use for bulrushes – a hardboard that could provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to standard cladding. It’s still in the early stages, but their efforts to rethink local materials is spot on with Fremantle Design Week creative director Pippa Hurst’s aim to put a little more imagination and colour back on the table.

“It’s not just about making the world sustainable, but making all the things that surround us — from products that can be returned to the earth, to things that can be circular and reused,” she said.

“A big emphasis for this year’s festival is on this idea of challenging business as usual across so many different sectors and areas, so that we don’t just accept that that’s the way things are done or the way things have to happen.”

The festival’s Imagine: Material Stories exhibition at PS Art Space will showcase bio-based, circular and waste materials, including work using seaweed and food waste to create textiles.

Ms Hurst said the festival was also interested in materials and ideas that could be sourced locally.

“The cost of transporting things here is obviously very carbon intensive. So we have to look locally,” she said.

That approach includes work by architect and UWA lecturer Lara Pinho, who is investigating the invasive growth of Typha, or bullrush, in Perth and its potential as a building material.

Ms Hurst said the festival would feature examples of people already challenging conventional approaches, including farmers using methods that regenerate soil, or hands-on funerals that help reconnect people, reduce costs and are better for the environment.

“It’s really questioning business as usual across so many areas of our life, because everything is designed and the systems are designed as well,” she said.

“It’s about imagining how things can be different, and we’ll show those examples.”

The festival will also feature a group exhibition, Reverie, at the historic Naval Store, bringing together more than 70 local and national designers, makers and artists.

• Mikey Hamer, AKA Uncle, is converting The Lieutenants Mess at 14 Mouat Street into a conversation pit – an open space to see his work, talk about his practice and chat about home lighting aspirations, and how cinematography can inform those decisions. Visitors can bring a light or glass fixture they’ve never figured out how to make work. Photo by Duncan Wright

Ms Hurst said the exhibition reflected a desire to move away from what she described as a lack of imagination in contemporary housing and design.

“It’s a beautiful story that really turns its back on this lack of imagination that we see with these greyish and white boxes and sort of minimalism,” she said.

“I think that’s where imagination goes to die.”

She said bringing greater colour, form and texture into people’s surroundings could help make everyday environments more engaging.

“So bringing back this richness and a bit of colour and form and layering, just bringing some life back into the world that we live in, I guess,” she said.

Ms Hurst said the festival was also about showing people that they could influence the way their communities and surroundings developed.

“It’s really about people realising that they have agency and that they can advocate, take control and make change,” she said.

“It’s up to us. They’re not written in stone.”

With most events based in Fremantle’s West End, Ms Hurst said the festival’s walkable format was an important part of the experience.

“There’s a big energy that comes from bringing people together in one place,” she said.

“Fremantle Design Week is all about getting out to see, touch, feel and connect.”