Teresa Müller and Jessica Hauser, interior design students at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, have been awarded this year’s Rhineland-Palatinate Design Prize in the Product – Design Talents category for their RAUMFALTER design. RAUMFALTER allows users to create a small, acoustically insulated retreat that—made from a single, intelligently engraved and slotted fiber-reinforced composite panel—can be transformed in just a few simple steps into a personal seating niche complete with a table, lamp, coat rack, and shelving.
The design was developed as part of the “Material as a Design Impulse” project series, which focused on the experimental exploration of textile fiber composites during the summer semester of 2014. In close collaboration with Filzfabrik Fulda and its subsidiary M&K Filze, new applications for the material were explored at the intersection of product and space. A group of 16 students intensively explored the properties and possibilities of the material and used it as a starting point for material experiments, which subsequently led to a wide range of different design developments and—with the support of industry partners—to the creation of initial prototypes. The project was supervised by Prof. Bernd Benninghoff.
From the jury statement by Alexander Kuckuck: “Textile fiber composites have emerged as a highly interesting material for designers and interior architects. They offer good acoustic properties, high dimensional stability combined with low weight, and a surface that is pleasant to the touch.
Jessica Hauser and Teresa Müller developed their RAUMFALTER from this innovative material as part of a collaborative project between Mainz University of Applied Sciences and Filzfabrik Fulda … It would be difficult to create a sense of privacy in public spaces any more simply than this. This design concept won me over immediately. On the viewer level, where the product’s aesthetics must capture attention. On the user level, where an object’s functionality should instill trust. And also on the owner level, where the symbolic value of a product can foster a sense of identification between person and object.”
