ISSEY MIYAKE Thinking Design, Making Design: Type-V Nature Architects 

This collaboration between A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE and the engineering design company Nature Architects, Inc. examines the many possibilities of the clothing brand’s latest developments and design solutions. Searching for the pinnacle of fabric design, together the pair have conceived a prototype for a special metamaterial (a fabrication employing technologies beyond the properties found in nature) that requires minimal sewing, instead relying on high-temperature steam to transform it into three-dimensional garments. The presentation “Thinking Design, Making Design: Type-V Nature Architects” demonstrates the methods behind this new innovation, its potential for creating complex pleating and clothing techniques that could not be realized before, and what this new technology means for other areas of design—like furniture, lighting fixtures, and even architecture.