Soft Tiles

SOUNDPROOF | SUSTAINABLE

Exploring the shift to softer and more eco-friendly and healthier materials for tiling. Creating wall tiles/coverings for interiors that aid in soundproofing and are more sustainable solutions to synthetics.

Coir + Wool

Mycelium

Role: designer, material researcher

Timeline: November - December 2019

#softinteriors #sustainability #materialstudy

#soundabsorbtion #natural

This project involved material research, prototyping, and testing more eco-friendly solutions for soundproofing a room. Wool and coconut fiber are both great materials for this purpose. The fibers of the coconut can be wet felted and layered to create durable sheets that can be laser cut to the desired shape. The second layer of wool felt padding on top of the coir adds to the sound absorption properties as well as provides better insulation in the room.

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Vector for the cutting of the coir sheet into a hexagon tile (above);

Mockup arrangements for the placement of the finished tiles (right)

Finalized arrangement and pattern

Coir units laser cut and assembled

Coir hexagonal units

Details

Coir units laser cut and assembled

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Navigate arrows to view photos of process for tile construction and assembly

MUSHROOM TILES

PEST REPELLING | SCENTED | SUSTAINABLE

Essentially, the term mycelium is used to refer to the thread-like structures of fungi. My exploration involved growing the mycelium from gray oyster mushroom spawn and using sawdust as a substrate. Mycelium is a renewable resource in acoustic absorption applications as well as insulation.

The growing process was carried out in customized molds, experimentation with three different ways of using the material- a plain flat shape, a relief pattern, and an embossed pattern. The growth phase of the mycelium took 22 days in total before the tile was removed from the mold, air dried, baked, and tested with natural dye pigments.

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Tiles incorporating Citronella as a fragrance to repel mosquitoes and pests. Citronella works by masking scents that are attractive to insects namely carbon dioxide and lactic acid in humans. Citronella oil is an essential oil obtained from the leaves and stems of different species of Cymbopogon (lemongrass). Using the idea of introducing fragrance into interior spaces for aromatherapy (jasmine, peppermint, vetiver, lavender) or to repel pests (citronella, clove, lavender), the fragrance can be replaced depending on the need.