MOBI Aims to Take Seaweed from Sea to Building

In what may be Axfoundation’s fastest innovation sprint to date, MOBI proposes an answer to the question that sparked the project: Can seaweed help reduce the construction industry’s climate impact? The Nordic collaboration has established a value chain from sea to building and developed a moldable material made with seaweed.

Within construction and interior design, wood, concrete, and fossil-based materials dominate – resulting in significant climate emissions. Bio-based materials may be a key part of the solution, and this is where seaweed comes in: an underutilized Nordic, regenerative raw material with strong potential.

To explore algae-based materials that could replace plastics, wood, and metals in the construction industry, the project MOBI – Moldable Ocean Biomass for Industry – was established in early summer 2025, bringing together specialists from Sweden, Norway, and Finland. A Nordic value chain was assembled to understand what it takes to turn seaweed into a viable building material. And, to identify what application would be a great introduction for the MOBI material to the building market.

Seaweed has the potential to help reduce the overexploitation of forests and can drive the construction and interior design sectors toward a circular, bio-based future.

– Amelie Silfverstolpe, Project Manager for Future Materials at Axfoundation.

Saving forests and cleaning the seas

Axfoundation’s Amelie Silfverstolpe has led the MOBI project and been responsible for testing the MOBI material at Torsåker Farm, Axfoundation’s development center for future food and materials. Amelie highlights several advantages of this ocean-based super resource.

– Seaweed has the potential to help reduce the overexploitation of forests and can drive the construction and interior design sectors toward a circular, bio-based future. It is a fast-growing, regenerative crop that requires no land, no fertilizers, and helps clean the oceans by absorbing nitrogen and phosphorus, says Amelie Silfverstolpe, Project Manager for Future Materials at Axfoundation.

Building a value chain from seafarming to manufacturing

Seaweed is a relatively new raw material source, and there is no established production technology, infrastructure, or market demand for algae-based building materials. The Nordic MOBI consortium has addressed these gaps by establishing a value chain – from cultivation and processing to material development and the design of construction components. The ultimate goal is to generate market interest in seaweed-based materials.

At Snøhetta Product Design, we’ve always been intrigued by the potential of emerging materials and technologies, especially when they support our ambition to design for the future.

– Marius Myking, Director of Product Design at Snøhetta.

The MOBI project consortium brings together four Nordic partners, each playing a critical role in the value chain. Axfoundation (Sweden) are leading the greater Swedish Seaweed Initiative that aims to bridge the various stakeholders and policy actors to enable scaling seaweed biomass. Manatee Biomaterials (Sweden), a joint venture between Nordic Seafarm and Future Lab and Partners, is responsible for the upstream supplying and refining of the seaweed raw material. Arkio Industries (Finland) handles the manufacturing and production phase, utilizing its specialized molding technology to create resin free natural composites. The design and commercial application fit are led by Snøhetta (Norway), which has identified a commercial partner for taking the moldable seaweed to market.

– At Snøhetta Product Design, we’ve always been intrigued by the potential of emerging materials and technologies, especially when they support our ambition to design for the future. Within the MOBI collaboration, developing a proof of concept is a critical step and perhaps where our core expertise contributes the most. It allows us to identify market opportunities we can design for and test how seaweed-based composites can meet real-world demands, not only as sustainable alternatives, but as materials with expressive potential in architecture and product design, says Marius Myking, Director of Product Design at Snøhetta.

Late harvest seaweeds ideal for materials

In line with the EU’s food first principle, Manatee Biomaterials uses late-harvest sugar kelp that is not intended for food. The late harvest starts in May when the main harvesting period of the food grade kelp is over. During the late harvest period, the seaweed contains less protein, vitamins, and antioxidants, but more carbohydrates and fibers. This makes it well suited as a raw material for production applications.

A strong, light weight resin-free material to the construction industry

To define a business case for the MOBI material in the construction sector, the team chose to evaluate whether the material would be economically viable for specific applications. The analysis showed that, thanks to its composition and strength, less mass of seaweed-based material per functional unit was needed to perform the same function as some common building metal alloys, woods, composite woods, and plastics.

The material is new to the construction industry, therefore an application area with minimal risk was strategically selected as the first introduction of the MOBI material to the market. The application will showcase the MOBI materials formability, lightweight to strength ratio, acoustic properties, and natural fire retardancy, inherent to the seaweed fraction discovered during the innovation sprint.

Potential to reduce emissions at a good price in the construction sector

A shared vision for MOBI has been for seaweed-based materials to be cost-effective per functional unit compared to wood and metal components, while delivering comparable performance with a significantly lower climate impact.

– Cost and performance are key criteria in the project, and have kept us really focused on optimization and iterating until we had an indicative proof of performance. Now, we want to get it out of the lab as soon as possible, says Ville Kokkonen, Co-Founder Arkio Industries.

So how might it be scaled?

The MOBI project demonstrates in this first phase the technology market fit for moldable seaweed as an alternative to metals, woods, and plastics in certain building applications. The next step for the MOBI project is to secure funding to begin pilot production of a full-scale proof of concept. This next phase is intended to validate the material’s performance, confirm market demand, and prove scalability across both the material supply chain and the production process. The project’s ambition is to be the first to introduce a moldable seaweed cellulose product to the building industry, with early orders and commitments being key to unlocking the larger investments required for full-scale production and long-term growth.

We were both ambitious and careful in identifying how the new seaweed-based material could meet application needs, leading us to a market segment with substantial volumes and low entry risk.

– Allon Libermann, Manatee Biomaterials

Allon Libermann of Manatee Biomaterials sees this as just the beginning.

– Establishing Technology Market Fit is where we are in the MOBI project today. We were both ambitious and careful in identifying how the new seaweed-based material could meet application needs, leading us to a market segment with substantial volumes and low entry risk. Let’s just say the MOBI material could hold up a building, but since it’s new we better first commercialize non-loadbaring elements. We’re now positioned for the next phases: Proof of Concept, Pilot Production & Case Study, and finally, Ramp up Production, says Allon Libermann.

As the project moves into the next phase, Amelie Silfverstolpe highlights the importance of reducing costs through greater efficiency in processing technologies and refinement. She also sees major advantages in the Nordic collaboration, which has built strong momentum and knowledge exchange – resulting in surprisingly high-quality base materials in a very short time.

– We would not have been able to carry out the project without Arkio, Snøhetta, and Manatee Biomaterials. As a Nordic collaboration, we have an advantage, as the Nordic region is widely recognized for strong design and leadership in sustainability. This provides credibility for buyers of new technologies and innovative products, concludes Amelie Silfverstolpe of Axfoundation.

→ Read more: MOBI – From Coast to Construction