Towards a New Matter is a material-based research project from Milan Friedrich, in which denim fibers have been transformed through a recycling technique into a lightweight and sound absorbing panel material. The textile industry’s production chains have been evolving into key waste and pollution generators over the last forty years. From the 80 billion garments produced globally every year, 75% are discarded after being worn for a short time. The current gap between textile waste and design innovation poses an interesting challenge: Could it be possible to turn textile waste into a new and sustainable material that can be integrated into our daily life?
Through rudimentary material manipulation techniques and the development of manufacturing processes, the textile fibre could be transformed into a new panel material. This biodegradable mono-material has been created without the need of adding a binding chemical, as it is entirely composed of natural resources and locally generated waste and scraps.
This manufacturing process has allowed recycled textile fibers to be converted into modular expandable elements that can be arranged within architectural spaces, into space-separating structures, thus generating spatial subdivisions or rooms within rooms, according to the user’s need. The resulted elements have a high strengths and a stone-like aesthetics without loosing the warm and soft tactility of textiles.
