Shape Changing Materials Workshop at Parsons School of Design

Last month IAAC Visiting Programs Coordinator and Alumni Efilena Baseta led a workshop about smart textiles at Parsons school in New York. Aim of the Shape Changing Materials workshop was to bring together smart materials with computational design and digital fabrication in context to garments or wearables.

The three-day workshop by Noumena has explored the possibilities of interactive wearable projects, finding alternative ways to use smart materials. The participants could experiment with responsive shape-shifting materials, 3D modeling and computation-based approaches.

NiTi shape memory alloys such as springs, memory wire and muscle wire have been explored and tested by students. Theirs tools included conductive threads, power supply, batteries and sewing machines. Together with physical prototyping focused on wearable applications and through the use of an algorithmic design software, students digitally simulated the fabric’s behavior.

The workshop took place in Parsons – The New School of Design as a part of Parson’s MFA Design & Technology Program, which explores the social and cultural dimensions of technological change.

Efilena is an Alumni from 2013-14 of the Master in Advanced Architecture where she chose the Digital Matter Intelligent Constructions research line and graduated with the thesis Translated Geometries. Having developed several interactive projects, her current interest lies in exploring material properties in order to create real time responsive architectural structures.

She’s currently one of the partners of Noumena, a collective group focused on design, research and education based in Spain and Italy and founded by IAAC Head of Visiting Programs and Alumni Aldo Sollazzo.