BIOMORPHIC
Biomorphic is a desk design made by stretching plastic between a top and bottom surfaces, thus reducing the amount of material needed during fabrication.
Categories
Bioplastic material
Consumption phase
Client
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
environmental issue
Plastic is one of the most widely used material for consumer goods, as it can take any shape and is very cheap. Plastic is a viscous material which can either set or melted again. When at its viscous state the material can be manipulated in various ways. Exploring the self organising behaviour of viscous materials was the basis of Biomorph. Making bioplastics was the first step of the design process, by using natural resources and not petrol-based materials. Consequently the shapes were obtained by giving constraints and let the material self organise. This made the design process more efficient because there was no need for a mold.
biomorphic
Biomorphic was awarded the A Design Award in Furniture, Decorative Items and Homeware Design Category.
“Form follows the material”: this is the main inspiration for this project.
Plastic materials are very malleable and can take any shape you give them. However when the viscous material is stretched, it self-organises into a very interesting way. The material acquires a branching configuration which seem to have structural sense under compression forces. In fact, a multi-directional support system performs better under compression forces than a linear one.
The material used for the manufacture of the prodcuts are bioplastics which can be derived from natural sources including starches.