bitMAPS

From vimeo.com/10943944:
bitMAPS was initiated through a client’s interest in a sketch prototype, and developed as an inexpensive patterned wall system. It integrates a custom design through a repeatable mold and integrates multiple functions of the room. The project is intended to create a clean but complex texture that is engaging to sight and touch, encouraged through embedded switches, custom storage compartments and openings for light and air ventilation.

The prototype was developed using sheets of intentionally pierced bubble wrap as a vacuum form mold for plastic panels. The process was further refined with a repeatable High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) mold. The dimpled panels are created by vacuum forming .06” white polystyrene over the mold. Edge conditions were particularly important to address, each panel had to interlock perfectly to generate the appropriate tiled effect using a hexagonal “bubble wrap” pattern. Positive, negative and flat plugs were milled and inserted into the mold based on printed templates. Oriented strand board was milled for each panel to accommodate for the negatives of the corresponding polystyrene tile, acting as spacer and providing the system with rigidity. More on vimeo.com/10943944.