Theform

Project

269834

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

Theform

Full concept/idea title

Description

2021, 4th Industrial Revolution, algorithms, custom experiences, virtual words, non-fungible tokens. It's about time to reflect on the future of design practice. Theform is a multidisciplinary design studio based on computational design and digital fabrication, focused on co-creation and immersive customization experiences. Theform will be able to work together with different kinds of designers like product, furniture, jewelry and fashion designers, forming, deforming and reforming products.

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

The current scenario includes us in the 4th Industrial Revolution, where cyber-physical systems are becoming more and more common and digitally manufactured machines are becoming more popular and improving every year. It is about time to reflect on the future of the design practice. Theform is a multidisciplinary design studio based on computational design and digital fabrication, focused on digital optimized solutions for product design, furniture, jewelry and even clothing, from prototyping to fabrication, promoting configurability and co-creation for corporate clients and customers. The first prototype of this idea is a lamp, it has an undefined shape that resembles soap bubbles mingling, it can assume many different form variations from this matrix concept through customer interaction in an online configuration platform. After the customization, the digital files for this client's customized product will be sent for production on CNC laser cutting. The lamp is an example of a product created entirely by Theform, but the main reason of this project is partnering up with designers from other fields to co-design and adapt their practice to this workflow as well. This way it is possible to create Theform's marketplace containing a variety of solutions co-created with designers from different backgrounds and providing a wider range of configurable products to the customers. In this marketplace, as clients interact with products, price will change automatically according to each change made. Also, clients will be able to try on pieces of jewelry or clothing and place items in their house virtually by AR technology.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

Theform will operate on a global scale but in a local way, with decentralized production. The goal is to achieve a network of global digital manufacturers across the globe acting locally in each region, reducing carbon emissions from transportation of supplies and finished products. These manufacturers can be FabLabs or businesses, factories, studios with digital fabrication technology. Digital manufacturing is also a sustainable solution because all products can be made by demand and can vary in shape and form without the need of a mold or pattern. The possibility of choosing from many different materials alters the price of the product and, thus, reaches a more diverse audience within the same design. Material variety has a sustainable value since customers can opt for a FSC certificated wood, recycled paper or even upcycled pieces of clothing. In addition, relevant designers and design companies that already exist can take advantage of these services in order to add the configuration property to their existing products or partner up for a collaboration, meaning we can co-design a remix of a product in their catalog or a brand new one for clients to interact with.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

Working with computational design can bring lots of new possibilities to design aesthetics, since it will depend on machine computation of data entry. A single design will offer lots of different iterations of itself. In addition, a product's final form will not always depend on human labor or human motor capabilities, it will be displayed virtually and produced digitally most of the times. Besides the computational asset, the whole "configuration before buying" experience will lead to a different type of exclusiveness, that doesn't rely on limited editions or elevated prices, but is achieved by creating a single piece every time an interaction is made by the customer. Also, an emotional value is added through the co-design and co-creation features, giving the customer feeling that they did their part on making that product. Also when talking about fashion and jewelry, Theform can promote a very well tailored experience, using 3D scanning technologies it would be possible to take exact measurements to create unique pieces that will embrace the customer's body shape.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

Theform's products can be more inclusive to customers since they'll be highly customizable before buying, they'll be able to fulfill different aspects within the same matrix design. These co-created products can be inclusive by the shapes they can assume, by the cost of the material to be chosen from and by the adaptability of a design to different occasions. In the previous example of the parametric lamp, it can be configured to be tall, small, wide, made from wood, acrylic, recycled paper or plastic, it can be a table, ceiling or floor lamp, all within the same aesthetic concept. The co-design feature makes design inclusive in many different practices, from jewelry to architecture, from furniture to clothing, Theform is made to adapt and collaborate, serving as a multidisciplinary asset to be incorporated in other businesses. As a custom-made experience, Theform can attend clients with special needs, such as different body shapes, smaller, bigger or with a specific disability or impairment. Also, as an online configurable platform, Theform's website will provide accessibility for interacting with it in many different ways: touching sliders on the screen, pinching, writing measurements, augmented reality interaction and dictation.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

Usually the variety a single product offers is restricted to factors such as color or material. In many cases, the customization service is non-existent. Sometimes, when the possibility of customization is available, the product price tends to increase exaggeratedly due to costly manufacturing processes, such as molds or specialized human labour. Theform is innovative in the way it sees the design practice, from a multidisciplinary perspective of co-creating with experts from other fields of design to output highly configurable objects for the clients to interact and co-design. These products will be available in Theform's marketplace. Also, the production will be set on demand, through digital manufacturing, not requiring the elaboration of molds or large scale manufacturing to make it viable.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

For the near future I would like to develop customizable products in partnership with local designers: a furniture piece, an object or home appliance, a piece of clothing and a jewel or accessory, all here in Porto, Portugal. Besides that, it would be interesting to create online workshops on this theme to create a community, make the whole concept stronger and raise awareness to the project, this way I can manage to have more reliable design partners, suppliers and stakeholders. I would promote this to architects, product designers, furniture designers, jewelry and fashion designers. Also it would be interesting to develop a line of open source products, to promote Theform to a wider audience, this way people would start to get more interested about it and the project could get momentum to rise. Some other features to be added in the future are virtual reality experience for corporate clients, AR try-on experience and the design of non-tangible virtual products.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.