Second Skin

<p dir="ltr">Research Background: Second Skin advances industrial design research into regenerative futures by exploring design-led digital fabrication. It draws on Neri Oxman’s Material Ecology (2020, MoMA) to position fabrication as ecological practice and Tony Fry’s Design Futuring (2018) to shift design away from defuturing systems. Current debates in Biotechnology Design and the Proceedings of the Design Society increasingly question how biomaterials and advanced manufacturing can support systemic wellbeing. The project addresses extractive norms in manufacturing by testing regenerative fibres and 3D technologies through on-demand fabrication of an everyday healthcare artefact. </p><p dir="ltr">Research Contribution: Second Skin is a hospital scrub made from SeaCell® and organic cotton, 3D-knitted from digital body scans to improve fit and minimise waste while enhancing comfort, breathability, and biodegradability. Integrating regenerative fibres with automated production explores scalable, low-impact models of workwear manufacturing. This contributes to industrial design research by evidencing how material and digital processes can reorient production systems toward regenerative outcomes by using and adapting existing industrial capability. </p><p dir="ltr">Research Significance: Funded by WorkSafe Victoria’s Mental Health Improvement Fund and commissioned by Peninsula Health, the work demonstrates excellence in applied research addressing social, cultural, and environmental wellbeing. Its inclusion in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Making Good: Redesigning the Everyday exhibition (2025), and Cotsaftis’ role as chair of the System Ready: Designing Materials for Impact at Scale session in the accompanying symposium, positions Second Skin as an institutionally recognised cultural artefact and a benchmark for how design research advances material innovation and digital production toward systemic, regenerative change.</p>