reForm

ABOUT:
reForm is a formal and functionally adaptive furniture designed using programmable materials. 
This work is part of a collaboration with Jifei Ou and Lining Yao at the Tangible Media Group at MIT Media Lab under the guidance of Prof. Hiroshi Ishii.

AWARDS:
IF Design Award
Core77 Community Choice Prize
Core77 Award
Finalist – 2016 Interaction Award

YEAR:
2015

reForm is a new generation of multifunctional, portable and deformable furniture. It acknowledges the problem, that living space in global cities is becoming scarcer and smaller. Therefore we envision the physical world of atoms around us being able to change shape as needed.

To achieve this we invented a thin and lightweight material composite that can switch seamlessly between rigid and soft states. When it is soft, one can form the material as desired, then switch it to rigid and let it perform. By switching it back to soft, one can reshape the material again. The prototype of reForm shows a formal and functional adaptive furniture: from a carpet to a table to a chair and back.