If the words “Italian” and “design” conjure up images of statement sofas and show-off lighting, a new exhibition and festival orchestrated by the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne is out to reset our thinking.

Titled Tools For After, the six-week program showcases furniture, home accessories, lighting and even homes crafted from biotech materials such as algae, fungus, marsh reeds and bamboo intended to create a kinder relationship – a symbiosis, in fact – between the built and natural environments. The sometimes zany propositions intend to counter the effects of our Anthropocene era, in which human activity has so dramatically affected the planet’s climate and ecosystems.