Carpet Design Inspired by UO Physics Gets the World's Attention
By Melody Ward Leslie, University Communications
Originally published by the University of Oregon
The UO’s product design guru thinks more students will want to study physics now that professor Richard Taylor’s research helped land a 2019 Innovation Award at the world’s top commercial design conference.
The winning design represents a colossal application of NASA-funded research led by Taylor, which discovered that people relax as much as 60 percent when exposed to certain natural geometric patterns called fractals.
Inspired by these findings, designers Anastasija and Martin Lesjak invited Taylor to help develop a new approach to designing flooring for workplaces, hotels and schools as well as venues where many people feel anxious, such as airports and hospitals. The global flooring and carpet market is projected to reach $450 billion by 2025.
The resulting collaboration involved 13&9 Design, the Mohawk Group and Fractals Research, a consulting firm founded by Taylor. Two of Taylor’s graduate students, Julian Smith and Conor Rowland, worked on the project.
