Research into the sustainable potential of shape-changing textiles launched
Imagine wearing a coat or sitting on a sofa that adapts in shape not only to you, but also to your surroundings. What would that look like? And to what extent do these kinds of products help us make more conscious and sustainable choices? These are some of the questions the ArtEZ Fashion Professorship will be researching in the coming year. The research is funded by a KIEM GoCi scheme of Regieorgaan SIA.
More and more companies, designers and other creative professionals in the textile and fashion sector and in (interior) architecture are focusing on the development of innovative, sustainable materials. The development of adaptive and responsive textile materials ('shape-changing textiles') is an innovation in which textiles can actively change shape in interaction with the wearer or the environment.
Stimulating sustainable behaviour
In this study, the researchers and designers involved look at the extent to which these shape-changing textiles can change our relationship with our environment for the better. They will focus on textiles for the fashion industry, and (interior) architecture. What happens when a seemingly inanimate thing like textile, becomes responsive? Does that change our attitude towards our environment and objects? By approaching textiles and the design process from a different perspective, in which the focus is not on humans but on the fabric itself, the researchers hope to learn more about the role that textiles can play in a transition to a more sustainable future.
These shape-changing textiles are a source of material and more-than-human knowledge, showing what it means to design for change in the context of sustainable human behaviour
