Kieron is a freelance writer and digital consultant who considers himself not a design enthusiast, but a design user, and for him that’s enough.
“Developing sustainable acoustic building materials for the future means producing sustainable materials today,” explains Fredrik Franzon, Head of Product and founding partner of BAUX, a subsidiary of Swedish industrial design studio Form Us With Love.
The Stockholm-based incubator, whose mission is to make traditional building products more visually appealing, is known for its colourful collection of acoustic panels made from innovative and eco-friendly materials.
Since 2014, the company has become a well-known brand in the construction industry and has partnered with brands such as Amazon and Spotify.
Her debut product is Kapok, a sound-absorbing material made from spruce wood, cement and water that has graced interiors around the world, beloved by Stella McCartney, as well as the offices of Google and the United Nations.
The company’s latest innovation, the Acoustic Felt, is a stylish sound solution made from recycled polyester sourced from 100% traceable textile waste.
It offers an industry-first solution for recycling the 92 million tons of textile waste generated worldwide each year.
“The problem is that it’s often difficult to find recycled material because the market doesn’t demand enough from companies,” Franzon said.
“Industrial felt is traditionally made from a blend of synthetic fibers, and while it’s easy for acoustic product designers to choose recycled materials, it can be difficult to determine where they come from.”
He explains: “Without control over the flow of material ingredients, BAUX risks purchasing products from corrupt suppliers.”
“Contrary to our original intention, we may end up producing more plastic and damaging the cycle.”
To solve this problem, BAUX partnered with The Loop Factory, which sourced 100% polyester thread from Swedish textile manufacturer Ludvig Svensson.
By collaborating with the Swedish supply chain, BAUX can keep its production network small and traceable, without relying on large manufacturing plants or large processing plants.
Once received, the cuttings are hand sorted into different color schemes and then undergo a secret process that allows the material to be reused while maintaining its original quality.
In the next step, polyester fibres recovered from textile waste are combined with energy-saving polyester fibres to form the material structure.
This part of the process is specifically designed to accept material fragments with different fibre qualities to eliminate the possibility of generating additional residual waste.
The fibres are then dyed. The panels have a natural colour range from white and grey to black and are dyed on site in accordance with Swedish environmental regulations.
The material is then placed into a mold, pressed and cut into nine different sizes, including styles such as desk dividers and wall panels that can be used in offices and schools.
The BAUX acoustic Felt series places the focus on functionality. Each modular component is designed to be part of an efficient system that is flexible and easy to operate, allowing it to be quickly scaled up or down.
No glue or fittings were used, highlighting the fact that each tile was designed with reuse and repurposing in mind.
“The BAUX Felt collection addresses most of the challenges that offices must face today and tomorrow, and expands the boundaries of business as usual.”
“Everything is connected using a minimum number of standardized hardware parts, ensuring ease of setup and reducing manufacturing waste.”
“We have achieved full traceability of sources from other industrial production facilities that would otherwise be discarded as waste and burned in power plants. This is the first step towards circularity, which is our long-term goal.”
Acoustic felt is just one product in BAUX’s portfolio. In 2019, the company launched acoustic cellulose panels, which combine 100% biodegradable and 100% organic materials to provide high levels of sound absorption.
The company is committed to innovating with closed-loop principles, designing zero-waste construction and continuing to produce new product categories to address the challenges of future construction.
BAUX: “The design of this product was developed jointly by BAUX and the international design studio Form Us With Love.
The material was developed in collaboration with The Loop Factory, a company that specialises in the development and implementation of sustainable solutions in the field of materials, products and technical solutions.”
BAUX: “When BAUX set out to create our first felt product in a market where felt was ubiquitous, we were faced with a clear dilemma: how could we offer a new product that would both push the boundaries in terms of higher levels of sustainability and also offer functionality the market had never seen before?
Felt has good absorbency, plasticity, it is warm and beautiful to look at. But if we are going to produce a product, it must be promising.”
To create a felt product that lives up to BAUX’s values, our design team had to solve a major problem that was preventing not only BAUX but the entire acoustics industry from creating truly sustainable felt products.”
BO: “The problem is that it is often difficult to find sources of recycled material, since the market does not yet present sufficient demand to companies.
Industrial felt is traditionally made from a mixture of synthetic fibers.
While it’s easy for acoustic product designers to choose recycled materials, determining their origin is difficult.
Without control over the flow of material ingredients, they risk sourcing products from corrupt suppliers and, contrary to the original intent, may end up producing more plastic and damaging the cycle.
First, we worked with our suppliers to achieve full traceability of sources from other industrial production facilities that would otherwise have been discarded as waste and incinerated in power plants.
We can control what goes into recycled products, which is the first step towards circularity and our long-term goal.”
To discover even more innovative building materials, don’t miss the FabBRICK project to reimagine building materials using recycled textile waste.
BO: “The product contains textile waste, 100% polyester thread, which is usually burned, combined with low-melting polyester fibers that form the structure of the material.
Each batch of yarn is dyed on site in Sweden using a closed process, as required by Swedish environmental regulations.
The material is then pressed into shape and cut into 9 universal sizes to suit all your design needs.”
The waste is manually sorted into different colour schemes and then processed in a machine where it is mixed with low-melting polyester fibres to create non-woven fabrics.
The nonwoven material is then placed in a mold and pressed into a solid sheet, which is then cut into nine different sizes using a water jet.”
BAUKS: “The materials used are textile waste (40%), certified according to Oeko-Tex ® Standard 1000, product class IV, and the dyeing chemicals comply with REACH Regulation No. 1907/2006.
The materials also contain thermoplastic fibers (50%), CO-PET/PET, 4dn. CAS: 24938-04-3, polyester (10%) and PET, 12/13dn. CAS: 25038-59-9.
The innovation lies in the way textile waste is processed, allowing the material to be reused.”
Find out more about Form Us With Love and don’t miss Form Us With Love: Raising the Bar for Design Studios – an interview with CEO Jonas Pettersson.
BAUX: “The BAUX Felt range places great emphasis on functionality. Each modular component is flexible and easy to operate, designed as part of an efficient system that can be quickly scaled up or down.
Everything is connected using a minimum number of standardized hardware parts, ensuring ease of setup and reducing production waste.
The BAUX Felt collection addresses the challenges that offices face today and in the future, and expands the boundaries of business as usual.
And, as with all BAUX series, when you purchase a BAUX Felt system, you can be confident that it will last a long time.