Maëlys Venkiah – The Shapes of Sugar: From Crystal to Caramel: A Material Journey

Maëlys Venkiah is Franco-Maurician food designer, who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2025. Her practice centers on sugar and caramel as structural and sculptural materials. Through processes such as casting, blowing, and pulling, she investigates viscosity, crystallization, and thermal instability. Working between solid and liquid states, she reveals the mechanical and optical properties of sugar. By treating an edible substance as a construction material, she challenges hierarchies between craft, design, and food, positioning sugar as both medium and message in contemporary material discourse.