Moltitudine

"Moltitudine" is a material exploration project developed for the Design and Materials course during the 2024/2025 Winter Semester under the supervision of Prof. Aart Van Bezojien. I followed a material-driven methodology to find practical uses for pre-consumer waste, specifically single-use foam earcups discarded during production quality control processes. I explored the unique mechanical properties of this waste materials: softness, shape-memory behavior, toughness, and supposedly sound absorption capabilities.

I started tracking down where the waste come from by tracking down the company that produce them. I found out that pre consumer waste of earcups materials comes out from the quality control of the machine that makes them. Therefore the waste is a clean material that can still be used.

The Output

As an output I decided to orient myself towards a surface made out of the foam cups. The surface is meant to make other surface more comfortable. The idea is to "hack" and upgrade existing objects, a concept I applied previously in my works. For this project I decided to realize a cushion shaped on an IKEA stool that was lying around.

To maximize sustainability and ensure easy end-of-life disassembly, I punched the earcups in matrix made out of Kraftplex. This stiff, paper-based material can be easily taken apart in water, allowing the base to be easily separated from the foam cups for future recycling.