By Dan Swartz

Felt is made by layering, matting, condensing and pressing fibers. When heat and moisture are were first—most likely by accident—applied to wool fibers, people noticed that they grew closer together and tangled into a single piece of fabric. Felt has long been applied to the mallets of drums and the hammers of pianos because of the resulting density and springiness of this natural reaction. Just as the hum of piano strings is dampened by the matted fibers most echoes and reverberations are effectively muted by felt. Today with advances in manufacturing processes and increasing awareness that natural materials are better for our environment, felt has become an ideal material for striking a soft and calming tone in public spaces, homes, and the offices.
 
The Hush Pod is Freyja Sewall’s provisional answer to the crowded and harried workplace that many workers experience today and—Sewall estimates—even more will enter into in the future.  Made from 100% wool felt and accompanied by cushions stuffed with recycled wool fibers, Hush provides calming seclusion that can fold into casual conversation. Felt is a very flexible and moldable material. It also comes in many forms. Most craft felts that children use in school are made from acrylic fibers spun from dissolving polymers in solvents. Sewall uses wool which, in addition to being sustainable is also naturally flame-resistant. 

A piece of furniture that crosses into the odd margin between clothing and architecture, Hush is an indicator of a desire for peace and quiet which people have difficulty finding when too many of them are gathered in a confined space. Sewall is not only thinking of cramped rental units and the stacks of cubicles that many office buildings continue to house. She is looking towards a future when clamor and crowding are unavoidable. Sewall contends that “it is essential to continue to develop new ways of allowing people to comfortably co-exist in these increasingly densely populated environments.”  If Hush Pods catch on you can look forward to seeing them in production and maybe, just may be available to all those who crave a little solitude in our world of attachments to the outside world.

BuzziFelt is made entirely out of recycled PET, short for the Polyethylene terephthalate that most plastic bottles and all polyester products are made from. This material—if properly kept and disposed of—can be completely recycled, making the felt oeuvre of the interior/industrial design firm BuzziSpace a link in the production cycle of a harmful synthetic. Designers Alain Gilles, Anthony Duffeleer and Sas Adrianssen have learned how to take that link and weave it into over a dozen products. What’s a better acoustic surface than felt?

Three-Dimensional Textiles hold the form that a designer gives them. They can undulate and ripple or furnish a room with rigid geometry paired with unique texture. Buzziskin is a wall-covering with adhesive backing. Meant for offices where ambient noise can be distracting, it gives offices a unit what can go in any number on any wall. The felt is pressed into a handful of unique textured patterns and colors range from discrete greys and playful pinks. The next step is taking the panel off the wall and forming it into a standalone piece. These BuzziPlants not only absorb sounds coming from beyond and in front of them; they also serve as clear and cuddly reminders to slow down and take life a bit easier, at least in the office.

Felt can be pressed into many forms but the delicate folding that Freyja Sewall does with the Hush pod can also be done, with tremendous effect on the walls of anywhere from a recording studio to a the bedroom of an infant. Anne Kyyrö Quinn’s Bespoke Acoustic 3-D Textiles and Wall Panels present folds and ridges of felt. They are sculptural, evoking frozen motion, but they have also been thoroughly tested for their acoustic absorbency. It turns out that every one of Quinn’s designs dampens the mid-to-high-range frequencies of footfalls, high-pitched machinery, and ambient conversation.  The wall-panels are the most finely tuned. They are at the top of the list as ISO certified as Class A absorbers for one. With a foam filling Quinn blends design and science with a surface-pattern devised to control echoes and reverberations.

Quinn is an artist and every design from her studio is a custom job. Her work compliments the flexibility of BuzziSkin, instead of contending with it. 

Texture plays an important role in climate-control and air purification. Activated Carbon is so porous that one gram (a handful) has a surface area in excess of 500 m2. Blücher Systems mostly caters to the civilians and soldiers tasked with protecting other lives while keeping their own as safe as possible. They began with antimicrobial clothing but have extended their reach to innovation in other fields. Their Saratech wall-coverings sandwich layers of activated carbon between textiles that can be further developed with foam. The material works with the gradient of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in a space. Noxious gas particles that can lead to headaches, nausea, and dizziness diffuse into the micro-perforated adsorber layer and stay held in place. With so much surface area a wall-sized layer of activated carbon can draw most all pollutants out of a space and have room for more.

Ecocarat Tiles also clear the air by way of porosity but in their hardness they reflect a different aesthetic than Blücher Systems’ textile-based approach. INAX uses clay from volcanic ash perforated long ago by gases rushing through the magma of Japanese volcanoes. The tiles’ open and labyrinthine structure allows them to help regulate humidity in addition to filtering air. In June 2011 the international supplier Global Trends began to carry Ecocarat products. This is only one indication of how successful these multi-purpose materials can be. Through careful attention to environment, texture, and the desire for peace of mind and body, designers are beginning an exciting project in pursuit of health for us and our surroundings.