About Us
Born out of the need to rethink society's view of the oceans as a source of planetary resilience.
Our Story
REEFRACT was founded in Berlin in 2023, developed through iterative prototyping, ecological field research, and material experiments that operate as research tools, not purely design outcomes. After visiting fishmongers and learning that they throw out hundreds of shells every week, we started investigating how deep this problem goes.
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Humans throw away millions of metric tons of shells annually. What if we could use these naturally occurring structures to bolster our resilience to climate change?
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REEFRACT began facing this challenge by becoming part of the BeVisioneers Mercedes Benz Fellowship's first cohort for sustainable ventures. In 2024, we won two grants, launched the first instalments in the Adriatic Sea of the Mediterranean, and began our first batch of innovative ceramics.
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Now we are refining our material further and exploring sites for instalments worldwide.
Meet The Team
Abie Franklin
Founder and head designer
Dr. Noam Ben Moshe
Marine Biologist and advisor
Hannah Blumas
Co-founder and project manager
Joanna Schmitz
Additive manufacturing expert and advisor
Our Collaborators
Sensory Ecology Lab, Ben-Gurion University — Methodological dialogue on sensory ecology
NABU Berlin — Material and ecological interface experiments
