Meet Sze Yek, the 2024 James Dyson Award Australian Winner and International Top 20!
Sorbet by Sze Yek
My name is Sze Yek. I’m an industrial designer and artist with a strong interest in sustainable practices as a driving force behind my creative and design work. My Honours project, ‘Experimental Materials Exploration’, focuses on upcycling household textile waste into functional acoustic panels, combining material innovation with environmental responsibility.
Sze is the 2024 James Dyson Award Australian winner and International Top 20!
The project ‘Sorbet’ was completed as Sze’s capstone Honours project, with supervision provided by Stuart McFarlane.
Sorbet
Entry Description
Sorbet acoustic panels are made from shredded textile waste with a starch-based glue. The acoustic panels intersect the issue of household textile waste, a material with the second lowest recovery rate in Australia after plastics.
Acoustic panels are integral within both domestic and commercial spaces, and protects both the mental and physical health of users from noise pollution. Efficient acoustic controls are known to improve the performance of workers in environments exposed to high noise pollution levels. A Sorbet acoustic panel is (18-28) x 450 x 450mm each. The textile based substrate demonstrated a density that is equal to PVA when dried/cured. A humidity test was performed on a Sorbet's acoustic sample over 5 days in a laundry room. A key observation was that the sample was soft after being sprayed with water but regained it's toughness overnight. This is attributed to the high salt content of the starch-based glue that was used to bind the textile-waste based material. An acoustic performance test was performed in a sound controlled environment, and found a 24mm textile waste based material outperforms an equally thick EchoPanel by 10.5% and acoustic foam by 23.9%.
Design Process
I began my inquiry on paper, organic, and textile waste within my household. The feedback from my supervisors and peers pushed me to identify access to large amounts of waste to improve the sustainability significance of my project. Through this inquiry I identified obstacles in sourcing bulk paper and organic waste outside of household contexts. Paper wastes contains sensitive information in both academic and commercial industries, and organic waste from commercial sectors requires me to compete with established sustainability infrastructures such as Coles "together to zero waste, hunger, and emissions" programs. Through these insights, I identified the opportunity to upcycle and aestheticize household's textile waste. Mould-making and casting methods were used as they are accessible and compatible with the experimented substrates. Through experimental materials exploration, 3 key features of a successful cast are identified. Firstly, a starch-based glue substrate creates dense and recoverable textile panels. Second, a 3 part mould design made from form-ply that includes a press component and separable parts improves surface consistency and eases demoulding and dehydration processes.
Future Plans
I am exploring installation methods for Sorbet acoustic panels. The outcomes of this project expanded my understanding of sustainable materials and I am looking to develop new sustainable materials as an extension from this project. I am currently enrolled in a Fine Arts (Honours) course with RMIT, and hope to utilize the materials I've developed into my Fine Arts studies.
Prize(s) 2024 James Dyson Award Australian Winner and International Top 20
University RMIT University
Lead Designers Sze Yek
Other Designer's names Dr. Stuart McFarlane
Photo Credits Sze Yek
Completion Date 2024
Project Location Melbourne
Project Link View
