Art and Design Commons^™

Flap Stool Storage Furniture For Urban Nomads, Liu Yang

Theses

The purpose of this project was to make moving from one location to another an easier process by developing a creative furniture piece that can be used for storage.

Research on the actual moving process and existing moving solutions was done to gather information to begin this project. At the beginning of ideation, light-weight materials and folding structures were studied, and several new furniture solutions were explored. Concepts such as a storage stool, a transformable shelf, and bamboo roll furniture were created and tested.

A storage stool was selected for further development, because it provided the best fit for the …

Non-Traditional Lightweight Polypropylene Composites Reinforced With Milkweed Floss, Narendra Reddy, Yiqi Yang

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Faculty Publications

Lightweight composites are preferred for automotive applications due to the weight restrictions and also due to the presence of inherent voids that can enhance the sound absorption of these composites. The density of the reinforcing materials plays a crucial role in such lightweight composites. Milkweed is a unique natural cellulose fiber that has a completely hollow center and low density (0.9 g cm−3) unlike any other natural cellulose fiber. The low density of milkweed fibers will allow the incorporation of higher amounts of fiber per unit weight of a composite, which is expected to lead to lightweight composites with better …