Oesterplat is a tile collection made from marble and oyster shells, showing their mother-of-pearl shine as contemporary fossils.

Oysters are increasingly popular as a delicacy, but are also cultivated for being excellent natural water filters. Designer Marjolein Stappers investigated yet another interesting feature of these versatile creatures. Struck by the beauty of their shells after savouring them at a restaurant, and noticing how they were thrown away as garbage, she came up with the idea for Oesterplat.

The name Oesterplat has been given in relation to how the oysters are still grown here in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, people mainly do soil cultivation that is spread over the 1,550 ha of land in the Oosterschelde and 500 hectares in the Grevelingenmeer. Every year, this land supplies the Netherlands around 25 million oysters.