RISD Alumni Magazine RISD News
Future Designs A studio course finds new uses for advanced materials. Words by Judy Hill Photos courtesy of Jeff Shen
What if you could design a key that changed color once you had locked the door? Or a crash test dummy that emitted light where it was injured? Or a hands-off shoe that automatically enveloped the foot? RISD students have designed all of these creations, and more, in an advanced studio course known as CATALYST that finds new uses for advanced materials. Peter Yeadon, the RISD industrial design professor who runs CATALYST, has been interested in advanced materials—smart, nano, biotech— for at least two decades. Trained as an architect, with a practice in New York City, Yeadon was always drawn to “forward-looking visions for architecture and design, especially the many modernist manifestos that envisioned other possible futures that would be technologically driven.” Yeadon has been teaching a version of CATALYST for two decades and has seen rapid advances in so-called “smart” materials that react to their environment and do cool things such as glowing, sensing, changing shape or converting one kind of energy into another.
“I’ve been encouraging the creative students at RISD to engage in the conversation around what this stuff might be used for in the future,” says Yeadon. “What other possible futures it might enable.” Yeadon follows a materials-driven approach where he introduces students to several different kinds of materials and then asks them to use one to create a project that addresses an issue they are invested in. The resulting prototype could be as small as a tiny sensor or as vast as an entire architectural environment. Nothing delights Yeadon more than a student applying the knowledge and skills they gained in the studio out in industry. For Kait Schoeck 13 ID, her CATALYST project involved working with a memory alloy, a material that changes shape to create an artificial muscle that acts as a power assist for astronaut gloves, which are famously stiff and unwieldy. Woven into the glove is an artificial muscle that contracts to help grab objects. Schoeck went to work for Microsoft, which was then designing its Surface Book laptop, whose screen detaches to become a tablet.
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