Feed

PRODUCT DESIGN

Natsumi Komoto – Baya

by Natsumi Komoto

Baya is a lounge chair inspired by animal nests. Starting with the question “Why do humans need to create?”, I explored instinctive structures built by animals—nests where function and form merge, offering a pure model of creation beyond culture and ornament. Baya’s CNC-bent stainless steel frame is imagined as branches, hand-wrapped with leather strips to form a personal nest that blends industrial precision with primal gesture. Leather, used since ancient times, softens metal’s rigidity and symbolizes the deep bond between nature and humans. Its enveloping form welcomes varied postures and moments of reflection, while the reconfigurable design fosters long-term care over short use. Baya quietly asks what sustainability means—physically, emotionally, and philosophically.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Louis Bosnjak – Repose

by Louis Bosnjak

Traditionally, upholstered furniture is made from a mix of materials like wood, metal, polyurethane (PU) foam, glue, and fasteners—forming a complex composite that is nearly impossible to recycle. PU foam, the industry standard for comfort, is especially difficult to process and often ends up in landfills. Repose rethinks this system by replacing synthetic components with fully biodegradable, organic materials. Combining a cantilever wooden structure with flexible wood fiber panels, hemp cord webbing, kapok fibers, natural latex, and expanded cork, the project creates furniture that is comfortable, durable, and designed for biodegradability—offering a coherent, circular alternative to conventional upholstery.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Yeonsu Na – Emerging Absurdity

by Yeonsu Na

Emerging Absurdity is a series of five accessories for contemporary daily life. Drawing on everyday norms, the designs incorporate elements of humour and charm, while remaining rigorously constructed and thoughtfully resolved. The project includes a cigarette umbrella, a floss ring, a glue stick-inspired candle holder, a MagSafe cosmetic case, and a signature ruler. Each object responds to moments that are oddly specific yet strangely familiar. These are not solutions to urgent problems, but careful responses to emotional details. The designs take absurdity seriously, exploring how even the smallest gestures and habits can be elevated, questioned, or gently exaggerated through form.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Marco Ciacci – ACE

by Marco Ciacci

ACE is a collection of hearing aids and wearable hearing devices, made with cellulose acetate, a bio-based alternative to plastic, traditionally used in eyewear. This material brings warmth, tactility, and function to the hearing devices, aiming to reposition hearing aids in much the same way glasses have shifted from medical tools to desirable accessories. The design revolves around a modular system where core technology snaps onto interchangeable, adjustable frames crafted from cellulose acetate. The result is a collection that spans from cochlear implants and over-the-ear hearing aids to earbud-style and bone-conduction solutions for healthier listening.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Oscar Massaud – Sisyphe

by Oscar Massaud

Sisyphe is a loudspeaker designed for outdoor use, taking advantage of the acoustic and durability qualities of fiber-cement (also known as Eternit), a material never before used for this type of application. Frost-, shock- and weather-resistant, it guarantees long life and reliability. An enclosure you can forget about outside, without worrying about the weather. Sisyphe becomes a discreet companion, from garden to terrace, right into the heart of the forest. Like a large carved pebble, it blends into its environment, leaving only the music you want to dance to.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Min Xiyao – Hay Day

by Min Xiyao

HayDay — a low-tech comfort solution: a low sofa filled with hay that embraces simplicity, sustainability, and tactile warmth. In contrast to overly complex internal constructions, it offers a refreshingly honest and charming approach to lounging. Made from just a single rope, fabric, and straw, its minimalist structure highlights the beauty of essential materials. When the rope is untied, the sofa unfolds into a daybed, adding versatility to its humble and grounded design.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Takumi Ise – Ballection

by Takumi Ise

Ballection is a collection of balls, each designed to offer a distinct quality—whether charming, surprising, or playful. The series forms a creative exploration and a personal portfolio of the designer’s fascination with materials, techniques and approaches.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Brice Tempier – Péninsule

by Brice Tempier

Due to limited housing capacity in urban areas, more people are living in small dwellings. At the same time, renting has become a common form of housing in many countries, including among adults. These conditions, sometimes marked by instability, frequent moves, and a feeling of not truly belonging to the place where one lives, led the designer to reflect on our relationship with domestic space, its temporary nature, and the difficulty of making it one’s own. This project takes the form of a small, mobile structure, the size of a bed, conceived as a personal spatial frame within a room. Péninsule is a dense and flexible living space, a micro-architecture open to appropriation.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Alicia Stricker – Stricker

by Alicia Stricker

Folly approaches the craft of beaded embroidery from a product design perspective. It explores the value of tactility above the visual aspects that the technique is traditionally valued for. Consequently, the project manifested as something that is experienced by the body - a sofa. Scaling up the traditionally small beads and applying principles of beaded embroidery in the development of a textile sofa cover allowed for the sofa to transcend its classic typology, creating a three-dimensional surface with a biological sculptural presence - an object that breaks the mould of what we expect of something as familiar as a sofa and begs to be experienced through touch.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Adam Friedrich – Airy

by Adam Friedrich

Airy is a research project that explores the use of air as a primary resource. It uses inflatable structures to protect valuable devices during travel. The design employs contemporary materials and pays particular attention to detail to offer relevant, everyday solutions for safeguarding increasingly fragile and valuable electronic devices.

PRODUCT DESIGN

David Ortiz Quintero – Little Helper

by David Ortiz Quintero

In cities like Lausanne, where steep slopes are part of the everyday landscape, navigating the city can be a challenge. Developed in collaboration with Senior-Lab, the project begins with the observation of a simple yet essential object. Little Helper reimagines the personal shopping cart as a tool for independence, exploring how subtle technology can enhance everyday life. It features an electric tilt-assist motor system that reduces the effort of pushing or braking, easing the physical burden of movement without the complications or stigma associated with traditional mobility aids. The project sees technology not as a feature, but as an invisible ally, fostering a more dignified and intuitive relationship with the objects we rely on.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Carl Johan Jacobsen – Hardwear

by Carl Johan Jacobsen

In the U.K new court ruling threatens trans-people while the US government is doing a full assault on trans and female bodies. Hardwear is a collection of wearable objects offering a sense of protection in urban environments, as a response to a growing tendency of hostility towards the body. Hard surfaces become flexible armor, protective shields transform into high heels. Whether to preserve personal space on public transport or to create cognitive distance Hardwear aims to create a sense of security. By using hard materials, the feeling of being safe inside a car is transformed to the outside resulting in a line of wearable objects made for for everyday resistance. Drawn on protection typologies from sportswear, Hardwear is made of 100% recycled plastic with 3D printed elements.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Wei Li Chung – Timber in Motion

by Wei Li Chung

This project explores the potential of fully wooden adjustable furniture. In today’s life, seating often serves multiple functions—from working to resting. However, modern recliners tend to be robotic and over-engineered, using complex structures and mixed materials. Timber in Motion challenges this norm by using only wood. Inspired by traditional outdoor loungers, a locking system allows for multiple reclining angles, balancing functionality with wooden aesthetics. Timber in Motion also uses precise connectors by Swiss company Lamello, making the large structure completely flat-packable and easy to assemble.It integrates structural experimentation with logistical efficiency, addressing modularity and ease of transport.

PRODUCT DESIGN

James Caruso – The Catalog Collection

by James Caruso

The Catalog Collection explores the potential of designing furniture and home goods exclusively from standardized components in the McMaster-Carr catalog, bypassing much of the traditional manufacturing process. Using Fusion 360’s McMaster-Carr plugin, its extensive 3D library enables rapid experimentation with precise, digital parts—bringing new immediacy and efficiency to the concept of ready-mades. By eliminating the need for custom tooling and minimizing physical prototyping, the process reduces waste, streamlines workflows, and asks: What becomes possible when we stop designing from scratch and start designing from what already exists?

PRODUCT DESIGN

Cedric Zimmerman – DUCTUS

by Cedric Zimmerman

DUCTUS is investigating how tangential fans can be reinterpreted in combination with spiral ducts, which are normally used in industrial HVAC systems, in a modular, energy-efficient ceiling ventilation system. The galvanised sheet metal is perforated locally using a specially developed laser manufacturing process and then processed into spiral ducts in an industrial standard procedure with almost no material loss. These ducts serve both as air ducts and as a supporting structure for the fan unit. The system, manufactured in collaboration with the Lausanne-based company Air Ventil, generates a wide, quiet air flow while also adding architectural accents.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Liyah Tomashof – Ensemble

by Liyah Tomashof

Rooted in the Vaud region, Ensemble explores proximity as a tool for sustainable and ethical production. In a globalized world where materials and knowledge are increasingly detached from place and people, this project explores how the design process can reweave a return to local relationships: craft, territory, and creative practice. In collaboration with a local ceramic artisan, the project has resulted in a series of porcelain objects shaped through shared dialogue and learning. Alongside the objects, mapping, interviews, and documentation of regional artisans accompany the work—highlighting a method of making that is relational, grounded, and reciprocal.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Jacob Kouthoofd Martensson – SoundTrack

by Jacob Kouthoofd Martensson

SoundTrack is a synthesizer video game that explores new ways of making and visualizing music. What began as a search for accessible musical interfaces—an instrument anyone could use—led to the discovery of how video games offer a precise bridge between physical input and digital possibilities. Inspired by children’s marble run games, SoundTrack merges complex digital music tools with simple, modular blocks, allowing players to build and shape their own soundtracks.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Yichen Wu – Haitang

by Yichen Wu

Haitang Stool is the result of a culture-based form study, a blend of tradition and democratic ubiquity. The popularity of the New Chinese Style demonstrates a growing recognition of traditional culture in the Chinese market. Building on extensive research into Ming-style furniture, this project aims to extract and bring its beauty to everyday objects, challenging the common perception that it only serves a select few. By redesigning the iconic red plastic stool, the local Monobloc alternative, Haitang Stool explores the communicative power of cultural forms while keeping its low cost and universal functionality.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Loïs Weber – ilo

by Loïs Weber

A report from the Swiss Office for the Environmental forecasts annual summer heatwaves, increasing the number of «tropical» days (>30°C) throughout the year. In response to this phenomenon, some Swiss cities are seeking solutions to combat these urban heat islands. The Ilo project proposes a solution to address heatwaves in Lausanne. In collaboration with a local brick manufacturer, the cooling potential of bricks, which absorb and slowly evaporate water, has been harnessed in a modular seating installation, providing shade and refreshment. Adaptable to various locations, this installation can be deployed during the four months of summer heatwaves, thus improving urban comfort and fostering social interactions.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Antonio Severi – VAC (Vacuum Assembled Composites)

by Antonio Severi

VAC focuses on assembling objects without conventional fasteners, using vacuum as a binder. This technique, known as «jamming,» originates from soft robotics but also occurs when vacuum-sealing goods like coffee. It increases friction between parts like glue but allows the process to be reversible. Various bags were filled with different materials, creating unique seating options that address technical challenges and explore material combinations. The project produced five chair prototypes using different methods, showcasing binding techniques that allow for easy separation and recycling, highlighting a commitment to sustainability and innovation.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Aurelia Pleyer – With kind regards

by Aurelia Pleyer

The way we work is changing. Today, we no longer stay at a fixed desk in a single place but need flexibility and movement. As we perform a variety of tasks during the day, we wish for an equally diverse range of spaces to create, concentrate, communicate, and think within. With Kind Regards proposes an open way of working on two surfaces. Sitting or standing, the furniture explores different possibilities of work situations. The simple and direct, yet versatile structure uses wood to create a warm, welcoming surrounding. Encouraging to work in new ways, With kind regards is a flexible place for both short and longer E-Mails.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Lilian Onstenk – uien

by Lilian Onstenk

Many discarded jackets have malfunctioning zippers. Before repurposing, textiles and hardware need to be separated within the recycling facilities—a labor-intensive procedure. The uien collection proposes a system in which the fabric and the zipper are easily exchangeable and separable. The cotton inner lining is connected to the water-resistant cotton outer fabric. Similar to a pillowcase, the felted wool insulation is encapsulated between the cotton layers without using additional fastening systems. The slightly modified zipper ties into the fabric and can easily be removed and replaced. uien aims for easier recycling but above all encourages consumers to replace broken items without special equipment or prior knowledge.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Fanny Marrot – Encore Bon

by Fanny Marrot

Encore Bon is a system designed to change the way we think about food waste by reusing existing unsold but consumable resources produced by supermarkets. These spoiled, less attractive products are often neglected, even though they have tasty and nutritious qualities. The Encore Bon system communicates and educates people about food waste whilst creating new products. Raw ingredients are collected and then combined according to their aromatic match using a dedicated application, creating new and unusual flavours. They are then dried to extend their shelf life. The result is attractive, tasty dry products that encourage consumers to take a different look at unsold food.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Jiahao Huang – Foamless upholstery

by Jiahao Huang

Polyurethane foam has been taken granted as the go-to material in creating comfort and softness for upholstery and caused immense pressure to environment. This motivates me to use spacer fabric, which features a sandwich structure with 3 layers, knitted altogether one time by 3d knitting machine, as the alternative to PU foam. I developed a sofa with this particular material in the core. It is cushioned, padded and covered all by spacer fabric. Without glue nor staples, all components are designed to be easily assembled and separated. The concept spins around the inherent tension and flexiblity of the material that enables it to naturally form voluminous yet smooth shapes. The idea is to build the cushioning core and contacting layer in one piece of fabric wilhout stiching and triming.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Justus Hilfenhaus – ECAL x ECAL

by Justus Hilfenhaus

ECAL x ECAL is a collaboration between myself and the institution. This project showcases a collection of objects designed and crafted at ECAL to address small yet significant problems I encountered during my time here. Each object, from classroom essentials to communal space enhancements, is created for optimal usability. With a galvanized steel finish, these items ensure durability and recognition, reflecting our contemporary architectural aesthetic. Crafted by ECAL artisans and myself, they represent our dedication to design, enhancing everyday life as they seamlessly integrate into our school environment.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Louis Ferraz – Volume

by Louis Ferraz

Table and bench system for common spaces. The tension of the project resides in the contrast of visual heaviness with the actual lightness of this family of objects. Big-scale products to occupy large spaces in an efficient way. The lightness and flat pack of the big table and bench allow an agile installation, yet they are durable and sturdy objects. This was made possible by using very thin plywood filled with a cardboard honeycomb structure.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Gabriella Duck Garnham – B+

by Gabriella Duck Garnham

Switzerland’s mobility infrastructure comprises of dynamic transport modes, from ‘hard’ steel tracks of train lines to ‘soft’ elements of buses and bikes. Soft elements are often the most accessible, making them essential in the mobility network to encourage people to use public transport. Traditionally, soft mobility infrastructure has been monumental, featuring concrete foundations and structures resistant to adaptation. Hence, they are difficult to adapt to the evolving needs of cities as they shift and grow, resulting in additional resources and even demolition. B+ is an ephemeral bus shelter for Transport Lausanne, designed to be secured on-site using local stone and timber, allowing for agile infrastructure that can shift and integrate with neighbourhoods as they develop.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Sofia Biondi – Campana

by Sofia Biondi

Campana is the culmination of a collaboration with the Swiss company Ateliers Firmann, known for crafting cowbells and railings, leveraging their well-honed skills and tools. The outcome is a pair of lamps, each a different size, sculpted from curved and welded steel profiles. At the heart of each lamp, the bell itself shines as the light source. The aim was to transform the iconic bell from its traditional setting, giving it a new purpose. Just as the bell's sound guides and signals the presence of the animal, its light now graces domestic spaces with a gentle presence. The lamps are distilled to their essence: the radiant bell, the supporting structure, and a cable that connects these two distinct elements, all made under the same roof.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Youssef Bassil – OoO_Out of Office

by Youssef Bassil

The average adult spends 24 hours a week on their smartphone, leading to health issues like eye strain, disrupted sleep, depression, anxiety, and reduced concentration. Many, especially Gen-Z, recognise smartphones are designed to capture attention and are switching to "dumbphones" – traditional mobile phones predating the iPhone. However, using a dumbphone daily ends up being impractical and frustrating. Modern society and services are tailored to smartphones for payments, transport, and more, alienating non-users. OoO_Out of Office offers a solution: an alternate device for basic communication, navigation, contactless payment, and tickets without distractions. Allowing users to stay connected and reach their destination without the overwhelming presence of a smartphone.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Altamirano Castro Eduardo – Sonido Material

by Altamirano Castro Eduardo

Today’s audio industry has turned loudspeakers into small, wireless, battery-powered plastic objects. To challenge this, I created the Sonido Material project, which explores the relationship between music and human experience, emphasizing our interaction with sound. The outcome is a minimal satellite flat speaker with three components. It uses magnetic energy to activate a paper membrane with a layered copper coil, amplifying the sound. Each prototype showcases the material’s rawness, creating a poetic dialogue with its sonic environment. The design is fully modular and dismountable, facilitating repair, recycling, or a variety of configurations/installations.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Clémentine Merhebi – 75

by Clémentine Merhebi

In 2023, a person residing in Switzerland consumes 140 liters of drinking water per day. Half of which is used for showering. 75 is a showerhead that saves up to ¾ of our consumption. Developed by SICT, its mechanism visually imitates but reduces the flow of a classic showerhead from 20 to 4 liters of water per minute. Deprived of its handle, it also represents a material saving by fitting in the palm of your hand. Assembled with a single screw, all its components can be separated, including its magnets, which offer different inclinations when in contact with its support. Like a canvas, this adhesive sheet deconstructs the architecture of the shower through a simplification of its systems and accessories, allowing us to better understand our consumption.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Meri Hozumi – Meno Mosso

by Meri Hozumi

Meno Mosso transforms consumers into creators through the traditional technique of «papier-mâché» – akin to “hariko» used for Japanese toys. In contrast to mass production and fast consumption through online shopping, crafting a Meno Mosso product is a meticulous and intimate process of layering and drying paper repeatedly. Formed with sustainable materials – scrap paper and starch glue – Meno Mosso’s slow crafting also fosters deep connections between creators and their products. Experiences are shared alongside loved ones and each Meno Mosso product bears your signature: symbolising the personal connection embedded in the unique piece made from your choice of used paper. Who would discard such products, nurtured with care, time and memories?