WEFT

A prototype for interactive & sustainability-driven furniture

WEFT

TIMELINE

July '24 - March '25

SKILLS

Physical & Digital Prototyping, User Research

SETTING

Brown University & RISD

TEAM

Sarah Fletcher, Eunjin Hong, Vishaka Nirmal, Bennett Graff

We are currently pursuing a patent for this work, so we unfortunately cannot share more at this time. Please reach out with any questions!

Background

Weft creates furniture out of shredded textiles in order to give a new life to waste.

Each piece is accompanied by a digital storyline that allows the user to engage with the history of their product and create a lasting emotional connection

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Context

How might the use of emotional connection extend product longevity?

Each year, over 11 million tons of textile waste and 12 million tons of furniture waste end up in U.S. landfills. Fast fashion and furniture lead to short product lifespans and a lack of emotional connection to possessions.

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11 million tons
of textile waste

12 million tons
of furniture waste

A constant feedback loop between the sculpture and the viewer, emotions are translated into the movements of the feathers, creating a pattern of their expressions.

Happy

Fear

Sad

RESEARCH

To understand sustainability attitudes, we surveyed 51 participants and conducted 11 semi-structured interviews. We evaluated how emotional connections might affect user perception of sustainable products.

74%

Said buying sustainable products was important to them

79%

Hold onto sentimental items

Users kept sentimental items to "memorialize that precious happy time"

We then synthesized these findings, setting requirements for our design that would:

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1. Foster emotional connections by documenting the story behind the original materials.

2. Encourage sustainable consumption through durable, utility focused products.

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Dr. Christine Metz, PhD
Endometriosis Researcher
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

Dr. Jennifer Unger MD, MPH
OBGYN
Brown University

Celinda Kofron PhD
Biomedical Engineering Dean
Brown University
‍

Aparna Kola
Biomedical Engineer
Nextgen Jane

IDEATION + Prototyping

PHYSICAL PRODUCT

We ideated on the physical form of our furniture through sketches and physical prototypes. Creating the textile boards involved experimenting with various textile scrap sizes, adhesives, and compression methods. The final boards achieved both strength and aesthetic appeal, offering a unique visual texture that highlights the original textiles.

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DIGITAL PRODUCT

In parallel, we started prototyping the digital experience. We brainstormed feelings that we wanted the user to experience and created sketches that could embody those feelings. We decided on a clean but informative feel, similar to a high end web magazine, and created a prototype in Figma.

After incorporating user feedback, high fidelity prototyping consisted of iterating on form and material using PLA, TPU, and silicone.

If you would like to learn more about this work, please reach out to me!

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