Portfolio¶
[project name] concept¶
It starts in the Alpine mountains with a sheep. Specifically, the Thônes & Marthod, a hardy breed native to the French Alps, quietly producing wool that nobody knows what to do with. Coarse wool, so called "lower-quality" that doesn't make the cut for fine textiles. It gets discarded due to the processing costs and no demand. The inspiration comes from the question: what if this "waste" material is actually an underutilized resource? Wool is naturally fire-resistant, breathable, moisture-regulating, and has interesting acoustic and thermal properties. The construction industry is always hunting for better insulation and sound absorption materials. We have a gap here that could be filled with wool.
The approach has been to sit at the intersection of material research and innovation frameworks by asking "how would this actually get adopted?" You need to understand the full system: the farmers, the processors, the architects, the contractors, the building standards, the supply chain. Who are the real users here? what are their issues? and what does a viable proposition would look like for each of them The Woolshed project has been a very useful foundation to build on. Thaeir knowledge and resource means we're not starting from scratch but we still have a lot more to find out. The development process has been exploratory. To see what can be possible to do with wool. Imagining it as a replacement to synthetic materials in everyday products. Right now, we're in a proof-of-concept phase to see which specific applications in construction and acoustics make the most sense to prototype first, and for which user groups to ultimately being able to convince them to adopt the material by providing them with all of the needed information for their specific use. The journey then is in finding the right first step that's technically feasible, economically interesting, and actually solves a real problem for someone.
Presentation¶
Video / Movie final project¶
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Thesis PDF¶
Download thesis here