Abigail Hoover

Abigail Hoover is a MASc student at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London’s Global Innovation Design Program. Interested in aerospace design and engineering, this class was an introduction to sustainable material and manufacturing. Primarily her research is focused in the applications of space based technologies in forwarding sustainable product and service development on Earth. Throughout this course she attempted to understand the barriers faced in high precision product production with sustainable material choice.

Throughout this transmaterial class, I became interested in bioplastics capacity for detailed production of goods and objects. As a result I experimented with the process of creating a pair of glasses frames. Due to its shrinkage, smell, and desire to bend throughout the drying process, bioplastics would be a difficult substitute for our current plastic, metal, and wireframes. Furthermore, bioplastic’s inability to be casted without severe shrinkage would limit strategies of mass production. Longevity and strength also became of concern after experimentation with different glucose/ glycerin measurements. If this project were to continue it would be interesting to explore the production of bioplastic sheets and their capabilities to be cut into frames then sealed for a professional, more functional appearance.