In recent years, architecture has shifted towards more sustainable and circular design. The scarcity of building materials and environmental awareness of the building industry generated a need for new techniques and developments, pushing architects and designers to increasingly turn towards biological and natural processes. Nonetheless, the related insight is still scattered, whereas the growth and development of new technologies are constantly accelerating.
The urgent need for new, sustainable solutions is clearly visible in the Dutch housing market. At the start of 2018, the Netherlands had a shortage of around 205 thousand homes. By 2020, that shortage is expected to reach 235 thousand homes. Not enough dwellings are being provided to fill this gap. Furthermore, the majority of homes constructed now are designed for so-called ‘starters’ - providing studio or one-bedroom apartments for people entering the housing market, creating an unsustainable unbalance in the variety of dwellings.
The primary aim of the project was to indicate a new approach towards modern, sustainable and circular architecture, by designing not only a building but primarily a circular housing typology with building elements and materials prepared on site by the living organism, providing food and energy for inhabitants. Hence the final product, despite being designed on a specific location (Binckhorst, the Hague), is transferable to other positions, and flexibility embedded in the very idea of the project allows for further modifications.

In this industrialized world, technology has invaded our life in such a level where behind every product a complex manufacturing process with high transportation costs being hidden. Designing a product itself is not enough anymore; the whole manufacturing procedure needs to be included in the design.

Especially when product design meets acoustic engineering, the design should not only fulfil the acoustic and aesthetic qualities but also take into consideration the cost factor. This is translated into the wise use of material, transportation, easy assembly and maintenance. At the same time, the target group is every single person that is called to participate in the assembly procedure, with no expertise knowledge, which adds extra challenge in the design procedure.

Less is more, as Mies van der Rohe stated. This research taking a step back and revaluates the product design principle for acoustic panels. Having as starting point the HELIX panel designed by Panayiotis Hadjisergis and Ioanna Christia, during Bucky Lab course of 2015 fall, the target is to keep the advantages of this panel while improving the acoustic performance and keeping the manufacturing process as simple as possible. The target of Helix panel was to provide a flexible solution regarding acoustics and assembly. The advantages of this project were further developed into the STRAWS project. The acoustic principle used is quarter wavelength tubes and combined to a cheap ordinary product, as straws, a broadband sound absorbing unitized panel is designed.

Until now there are lots of products that are made for acoustic but none of them fullfil so many different design needs. This research proposes an already existing product which by implementing acoustic principles, can be applied in open-plan officess. In this way the acoustic panel will not only be suitable for a wide range of frequencies but also designed in a way that uses little amount of material, without taking up a big space and being able to be re-used in a different environment.