FibraForm

We were inspired by onion domes and church spires when designing the shape of our hat and wanted to create a hat with an architectural look. We also tried to add fine details in the form of ornamentation to the surface of our hat to see how small details could be represented through the process of thermoforming and pulping. We developed our shape into an octagonal dome on which we applied the laser-cut ornamentation. Our hat is primarily intended to be used in a theater or art context, with the aesthetics of being part of ancient architecture or reminiscent of a war helmet from long ago.

Material: straw, perlite, casein glue
When selecting the materials, we stuck to our concept and chose materials that were and are still used in architecture. We chose chopped straw as the fiber material, which we mixed with crushed perlite (volcanic rock) in our pulp mixture. As the straw and perlite only bonded to a limited extent in the material strength we were aiming for, we chose casein glue as a supporting binder, which we mixed into the pulp. This milk protein-based glue gave our pulp mixture the necessary bond to pulp with these materials. All these materials are biodegradable and can therefore be disposed of in nature without hesitation. In addition, these materials are very well suited to serve as a breeding ground for mycelium, making it easy and quick to produce a wide variety of shapes in the pulping process, which could then be overgrown.