One repeating curve, carried from a childhood notebook through parametric design toward future, responsive materials.
A hypotrochoid — the same geometry a Spirograph draws — generated by two rotating circles at a fixed ratio. Every shape in this project traces back to that one repeating curve.
The flat curve becomes a single repeatable unit, tested first as a small object rather than a full garment. This wire piece is an inspiration reference — proof that a looped, repeating curve can hold up as a real, wearable object, not just stay a drawing.
The project follows the standard design-thinking loop — empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test — but each stage is grounded in a specific fabrication task, so thinking and making happen together rather than in sequence.
Research the curve itself — study spirograph geometry and gather precedent, including the wire-form reference.
Sketch by hand and choose which unit and scale to commit to for the first working piece.
Rebuild the chosen unit as a 3D parametric model, testing ratio and density variations digitally.
3D print TPU directly onto fabric, thread fiber optic through selected loops, and stitch sections together.
Try the printed piece on body, identify weak points, correct and reprint where needed.
Every stage above is documented as it happens, so the process stays repeatable beyond this one piece.
Fabricademy and digital fabrication make this loop possible in the first place. Parametric software lets the curve stay editable at every stage instead of locked in after the first sketch. Digital fabrication turns that editable curve directly into a physical, repeatable unit — printed on demand, in the exact quantity needed, with no mold or tooling to discard between tests. That combination is what lets "test" actually feed back into "define" quickly enough to matter within the project timeline.
TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) is flexible, printable, and durable enough to hold the curve's structure directly on fabric. Fiber optic filament carries light along the same looping path. Combined, the two become illuminating TPU — a structural line that can also glow.
The plan is to print TPU directly onto textile, with fiber optic threaded through selected sections during the same build — so the rigid curve and the soft base material stay one continuous piece.
Beyond this proposal, I'm interested in materials that don't just hold a fixed shape but respond, monitor, and automate — especially for wearables and tensile structures, where digital fabrication makes that responsiveness buildable rather than theoretical.
Materials that return to a set form when heat or another trigger is applied — structure that folds flat and reopens on demand.
Fabrics that shift color with temperature or light exposure, letting a garment visibly signal a changing condition.
Fiber cores that store and release heat, adjusting warmth automatically as outdoor conditions shift.
Threads that generate small amounts of power from movement or light — a step toward garments that monitor themselves.
The same logic at building scale — facades and canopies that shift porosity or shading in response to sun and wind.
Put together, this points toward what I'd call flexible clothing — a single adaptive system that changes through the day depending on occasion, rain, temperature, or moving between indoors and outdoors, rather than a closet of separate fixed garments for each condition.
"One curve, from a childhood notebook to a material that responds on its own."