Research project

Smart Textile Services

The main research challenge was to develop the tools and methods to design for smart textile services. This challenge branched out in several directions, such as crafting communities, craft qualities for STS, and the role of prototypes for embodied STS.

Intersection of textile tradition and technological innovation

Smart Textile Services (STS) was a collaborative project within the CRISP Program. The project created an ‘inspirational test-bed’: a platform of methods, tools, materials, multiple partners, and many prototypes through which the creative industries explored the opportunities and challenges of joining their expertise towards designing smart textile product service systems.
The methodological drivers for STS were the three phases of the ‘Growth Plan’ that were based on earlier projects within Ambient Intelligence system design, and the strong ID attitude towards prototyping and research through design (RtD). STS went well beyond the earlier RtD paradigm of one design-one designer-one context.