Dripping Hats

Commonly known and mysterious at the same time: egg cartons are just one example of the many molded paper parts that we encounter in a wide variety of products. The lightness, surface quality and stability of the material, and not least its ability to circulate in a cycle, prompted us to take a closer look at the (paper) fiber casting process in this 1st year project.
The task was to design hats that are produced using fiber moulding. The students explored the world of headgear – from hats at the racetrack to sports caps and sun protection on the construction site – and translated them into their own designs. In the first part of the project, the students got to know the process of fiber moulding by implementing it themselves in a simplified form and shaping paper with a wet vacuum cleaner. In the second part, the students explored the limits of the material and its processing: they replaced the paper in the pulp with other materials. The aim was to break out of conventional paper fiber moulding and thus refine their own hat designs conceptually and experimentally.