Concept and Design Development
Conceptual Origins
I first started researching sustainability and sustainable materials during an internship with Chris Sancomb, where we were looking for sustainable materials to add to a materials library. Before starting this internship, if asked for the definition of sustainability I probably would’ve told you that it was something along the lines of “stuff that’s good for the planet.” Researching during the internship opened me up to the complexities, challenges, and possibilities of sustainability. I learned about elements of greenwashing, the environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability, and developed a persistent interest in how to apply sustainable materials and methods to project work.
Additionally, throughout my time in the industrial design program I wanted to explore exhibit design, but had not yet been able to do so.
From these two interests the idea to develop a sustainable exhibit was born.
What, exactly, would the goals of the exhibit be, though? What would the content look like?
First, while I was researching sustainability, I had many conversations with other students about the subject. The interest was there, but the degree to which sustainability has been integrated into our education varies, and it tends not to play a primary role in courses. For students in fields similar to mine — design, engineering, art, for instance — materials play an important role. Through this exhibit, I could share information and resource to help emerging professionals learn about sustainability as they move into positions where they effect change.
Second, some of the questions I’ve most often received regarding sustainable materials are “do they work as well as traditional materials,” “are these materials actually available,” and the biggest one, “how much more expensive is it?” Sustainable design is often thought of as undesirable or unattainable. I decided that this exhibit could be an opportunity to create a proof-of-concept for sustainable design. The exhibit would be self-referential, where the materials the exhibit was made of also serve as the content. What would an exhibit look like that was as sustainable as I could make it — and also still have it be attractive, effective, and durable?
A final thing I committed to when beginning this project was radical transparency — being honest about successes, challenges, points of improvement. There is a part of me that hesitates to share my failures because I don’t want to focus on the negatives, but I stand by radical transparency, as honesty regarding sustainable efforts can guide future improvements.
Guiding Documents and Foundational Principles
Going into the project, I conducted further research on exhibit-specific sustainable practices, exhibit design in general, and specific material qualities.
Key documents in the development of my project were the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s Green Exhibit Checklist (no longer published online) and Using the Resources at Hand: Sustainable Exhibition Design. My most relied-upon resource was the Sustainable Exhibition Design + Construction Toolkit. The five categories of sustainability it enumerates became guiding pillars for my own design process. They are as follows (paraphrased as in my exhibit’s interpretive text):
Human health: Prioritize human wellbeing by avoiding toxic chemicals in materials and environments
Social health and equity: Choose materials free from human rights violations in their supply chains and manufacturing processes
Ecosystem health: Choose products that maintain a healthy natural environment through thoughtful supply chain management and restorative practices.
Climate health: Reduce carbon emissions through the selection of low carbon or carbon neutral materials
Circular economy: Design to minimize waste, keep materials in use as long as possible, and reuse or recycle components at the end of their useful lives
With a foundational understanding of my subject matter and goals, I attempted to select materials for the exhibit. Early on, I primarily focused on those I had found during my internship. These included hemp board, waxed cotton canvas, and mycelium.
Initially, I hoped to make the entire exhibit out of mycelium, which is compostable. After the exhibit’s display life ended, it could be placed in the forest where it would disappear. I soon realized, however, that this was likely impractical for what I aimed to achieve. The mycelium I planned on using grows in molds for five to seven days and then needs to be heated at low temperatures for hours to stop the mycelium’s growth. I didn’t have time, nor space, to build all the molds, give the mycelium time to grow, and then also dry the mycelium. Nor did I know if mycelium could act as a structural element.
With this realization, I spent more time researching alternative sustainable materials and analyzing sustainable design guides. Ultimately, I set the following guideline for my exhibit:
Materials acquired will fit into one or more of the following categories: locally sourced within a fifty mile radius of Storrs, Connecticut; reclaimed; reusable; and/or compostable in a non-industrial setting. Additionally, I endeavor to eliminate the use of petroleum-based plastics.
Design Brief
I soon jumped into the nitty gritty of brainstorming with the goal of defining the “Who, What, Where, Why, and How” of my project. Not only was it important to have a solid conceptualization of the project for my own design purposes, but I also intended on applying for grants to fund the design and fabrication process. I needed to be able to clearly articulate my project to people who might not regularly work in the spheres of sustainability or design.
I rely heavily on sticky note brainstorming for my projects, and Material World was no different. Hours spent writing down anything and everything that came to mind led to a mass of sticky notes on an expansive sheet of brown paper. Attempts to organize my thoughts into discernible categories left me dazed, confused, and unsure of what to make of the project.
All of my sticky notes before any attempt to sort them.
I tried to figure out categories and connections between ideas, but quickly became overwhelmed.
While sorting through the Post-it notes, I was fortunate enough to have a meeting with a few of my peers in an independent study cohort. We discussed all of my sticky notes and worked together to organize them into discernible categories. Afterwards, I had a better understanding of my “who, what, where, when, why, and how.”
Post-it notes sorted into categories.
From left to right: what, how, who, why.
From this, I was able to develop a design brief for the project that would guide all of my future decisions. While certain things changed between the creation of the design brief and the installation of the exhibit, the core principles of the design brief remained constant. You can view the design brief here.
Designing the Exhibition
After brainstorming and establishing my design brief, I began designing the exhibit structure. This was another key step in preparing for grant applications, as all the grants required a budget and I could not create an accurate budget without at least a general idea of what the exhibit would look like and what it would be made of.
For most of the project up to this point, I had envisioned the exhibit as a standalone circular structure reminiscent of diagrams depicting a circular economy. This is the visual around which I started my designs, some of which were sketches and many of which were rough models in Rhinoceros 3D.
Some of my early Rhino models featured solid walls.
As I was developing Material World, its pop-up nature brought up one key detail: that the exhibit would need to travel. If my structure’s walls were solid, how would they move from one place to another, and what costs would be involved with the move (human, financial, and environmental)? Thus, an important design necessity emerged: modularity. My exhibit would need to break down to travel compactly. Ideally, it could be packed flat to save on energy cost.
Eventually, a wall structure with vertical supports and horizontal shelves that slot together emerged as a top contender to solve this problem. Its interlocking nature would minimize the amount of hardware needed to assemble the exhibit. I could use each window as a framework to add cladding. Panels placed within the windows would not need to be structural, thus permitting for use of materials such as mycelium and organic cotton canvas.
The planar horizontal and vertical supports slot together in alternating directions.
The white panels in this conceptual model represent mycelium, while the teal represents fabric.
I also experimented with ribbon-like and triangular structures to see if it made sense to have different exhibit configurations. With the triangle, the same three walls that make up the circle could be inverted to form the space-saving triangle.
To test the interlocking slot design of the exhibit walls, I cut a scale model on the CNC machine. It worked perfectly, and proved that the design was feasible for the full scale exhibit.
The mini wall prototype without base and upper pieces attached.
Testing how fabric bends around the ends of the exhibit wall.
I also mapped out layouts to gain an understanding of scale. For my first layout, I applied tape directly to the floor. Later, I used a large sheet of paper to draw different circumferences and wall sizes.
This paper with the finalized exhibit footprint, seen in orange, came in handy later in the process, too. When deciding on installation locations, it was often difficult to visualize how big the structure would be in the space. The footprint helped to generate an understanding of scale and what clearances were necessary around the structure.
My first attempt at mapping a layout involved tape on the floor.
My second attempt allowed for the creation of layouts with different radii and moveable paper representations of the walls.
From the first to second iteration of the slotting design, I thickened the walls of the exhibit and adjusted the number of shelves and vertical supports. Moving to the third iteration, I standardized the shelf height to allow for easy interchange of panels in case repairs need to be made. The final version included the addition of a live edge aspen board running through the exhibit, as well as text panels accented by deep orange milk paint.
I was able to gain an understanding of what the exhibit might look like in an installation location by using augmented reality. I exported .fbx files from Rhino and imported them into Adobe Aero.
Budgeting and Material Specification
While much of grant writing involved learning how to concisely summarize the spirit and technical details of my project, another key aspect of grant writing was budgeting. I primarily used analysis tools in Rhino to ascertain dimensions for lengths and widths of fabric and wood, as well as volumes for mycelium, and then used that information to develop rough material estimates. My original budget included materials such as Medite and seed paper. However, in a secondary revision I narrowed down the budget to the materials that were used in the final exhibit. I also budgeted for contracted services such as CNC machining and screenprinting.
My initial budget with all the materials I considered using, as well as quoted prices from my contractors.
My budget after finalizing materials to be used in the exhibit, with different colored rows representing different funding sources.