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Ofri's Portfolio
Researching self-shaping materials at the intersection of design, physics, and fabrication.
Self-shaping materials · Material computation · Digital fabrication
Creative diffrences
Creative Differences is a glimpse into a more sustainable future, where materials we use are no longer passive recipients of design but active participants in their shaping process. While common human approaches seek to eliminate difference, inhomogeneity is nature’s generative mechanism of variety and harmony. This creative power of heterogeneity in matter and society drives Automorph network, a collaboration between scientists and designers, to work together on the concept of self-shaping matter.
Visualizing Frustration
This project involves the design and calibration of a spring system simulation to visualize the nonlinear relationship between the flat sheet and the resulting complex 3D shapes in Frustrated Ceramics. presents a novel approach to sustainable construction using Frustrated Ceramics, a self-morphing clay material system that enables on-site, mold-free shaping. The system layers two types of clay with different shrinkage rates, forming a flat sheet that transforms into a complex 3D shape during firing due to geometrical incompatibilities. the spring system captures the dynamic transformation from a flat state to intricate morphologies. This simulation tool is essential for understanding the self-morphing process, providing architects and designers with a visual and predictive model to explore and control the unique material behaviors of Frustrated Ceramics.
Tyto Pregnancy
This project involved developing a set of home-use testing devices for common pregnancy tests, designed to enhance engagement with TytoCare’s product. We aimed to introduce users to the product early, making pregnancy care procedures more accessible and comfortable at home.
All rights reserved to TytoCare.
All rights reserved to TytoCare.
Towards Controlled Frustration
Parameterization of Self-Morphing Clay - Frustrated Ceramics (FCC) is a material system that leverages two clay bodies with different shrinkage rates during firing, creating self-forming shapes with positive curvature. This research expands FCC's potential by enabling control over curvature orientation, type, and degree. Through techniques like varying sheet thickness, adding grooves, and adjusting material layering, precise shaping becomes achievable.
By developing a quantitative understanding of FCC, this study enhances the predictability of complex, nonlinear transformations from flat sheets to intricate forms, positioning FCC as a viable, sustainable solution for architectural applications.
By developing a quantitative understanding of FCC, this study enhances the predictability of complex, nonlinear transformations from flat sheets to intricate forms, positioning FCC as a viable, sustainable solution for architectural applications.
Dance of the machine
An exhibition explores the latest trends in industrial design, where technology and creativity meet. Featuring final projects from the Industrial Design Department at Bezalel, we reflect on how design evolves in a world driven by tech advancements
Shingler
SHINGLER offers a futuristic, sustainable design approach that uses Self-shaping clay to craft complex façades for addressing climate challenges. Enabling on-site fabrication reduces transportation impact, while the façade’s design is optimized for hot climates through two passive cooling strategies: the overall geometry incorporates traditional desert methods, such as wind tunnels, and the surface integrates hydrogel within clay grooves to absorb dew and gradually release moisture, cooling the environment.
Water War
Inspired by Tel Aviv’s persistent rainwater management challenges, I created a three-part project aimed at urging the city to change its approach.
In the first act, I proposed a practical solution by designing water seepage holes to be installed across the city, allowing rainwater to flow directly into the aquifer beneath. This intervention was intended to reduce runoff and help sustainably manage rainwater. When this plan didn’t gain traction, I moved to the second act—a large-scale installation demonstrating the volume of rainwater falling on the rooftop of Habima, Israel’s national theater, which, like most rainwater in Tel Aviv, ends up wasted and flowing into the sea. As a final resort, I created a "how-to" manual for emergency flood preparedness, guiding residents on assembling an emergency raft from everyday items to escape potential floods. Through these acts, the project advocates for a more sustainable approach to rainwater management in the city.
In the first act, I proposed a practical solution by designing water seepage holes to be installed across the city, allowing rainwater to flow directly into the aquifer beneath. This intervention was intended to reduce runoff and help sustainably manage rainwater. When this plan didn’t gain traction, I moved to the second act—a large-scale installation demonstrating the volume of rainwater falling on the rooftop of Habima, Israel’s national theater, which, like most rainwater in Tel Aviv, ends up wasted and flowing into the sea. As a final resort, I created a "how-to" manual for emergency flood preparedness, guiding residents on assembling an emergency raft from everyday items to escape potential floods. Through these acts, the project advocates for a more sustainable approach to rainwater management in the city.
Transforming Grounds
This project explores the creation of a 3D printing material derived from loess, a natural sediment covering about 10% of Earth's land area. Primarily formed by wind, loess can also originate from glacial activity. When glaciers grind rocks into a fine powder, streams carry this sediment away, depositing it at the glacier’s edge, where it accumulates as loess. This natural material presents a sustainable source for innovative 3D printing applications, harnessing a naturally occurring resource with a unique texture and structure for design and construction.
Cyclamen
4D Printing of Cyclamen Flower - The printed PLA shrinks along its printing path. I designed the printing path of a flat cyclamen shape as a parametric code, allowing me to easily adjust it. Through trial and error, I discovered the optimal printing path that enables the flat printed sheet to organically morph when heat is applied.
Dusha
Dusha introduces a new visual expression in a familiar object—a pair of glasses. We explored the components that influence fold shape, frequency, and the proportional relationship between the folds and the face. Building on this research, we developed a technique involving a system of plastic connectors printed at various points along a fabric strip. This project was created as part of a collaborative course between Bezalel and Stratasys, designed in partnership with Karin Sorokin.
Blue Ceramics
Morphing Ceramics for Seagrass Meadow Restoration - Seagrass meadows, known for capturing carbon twice as effectively as forests, are disappearing due to human impact. This project focuses on restoring these critical ecosystems by combining insights from marine biology, material science, and industrial design. Through a nature-centered design approach, I collaborated with scientists to develop an ecological solution that uses digital fabrication techniques to create morphing ceramics, specifically designed to support seagrass growth and enhance carbon capture. This interdisciplinary effort brings together advanced fabrication methods and ecological science, showcasing how design can actively contribute to environmental resilience and sustainable ecosystem restoration.
Breeze Desk
Designed for an industrial design studio in the new Bezalel building, this desk embodies the building's core value of transparency, a guiding principle in the design process. The desk provides a flexible layout that creates both personal and shared spaces for two students, allowing each to adapt and customize it to their needs and preferences.
This project opened the opportunity for me to join the design team responsible for the Department’s current workstations. This contribution enabled the creation of adaptable, personal workspaces tailored to the needs of the department’s young, innovative students.
This project opened the opportunity for me to join the design team responsible for the Department’s current workstations. This contribution enabled the creation of adaptable, personal workspaces tailored to the needs of the department’s young, innovative students.
The Swirl
The swirl is an architectural piece made of frustrated composites. In search of more sustainable fabrication processes with reduced material and energy waste as well as transportation carbon footprint, frustrated composites suggest mouldless fabrication of fibre composite surfaces, based on self-shaping. Triggered by heat, the resulting 3D shape is the result of differential shrinkage, dictated by fibre pattern.
Island exhibition
Design and production of the bachelor's degree graduates' exhibition for the Department of Industrial Design at Bezalel Academy.
Parametric 4D ceramic wall
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All clay materials shrink in the firing process, each with a different shrinkage coefficient according to its mineral content. Combining clay materials of two different types, we make a flat ceramic bi-layer that develops internal stresses during the firing process. The frustrated ceramic material morphs in the firing kiln to its programmed shape, controlled parametrically through variables of thickness, material architecture and grooves.
The soldier
A hand-made rotating motor introduces the concept of an endless rotation, symbolizing the perpetual, cyclical nature of a soldier’s life. This piece captures the repetitive, confined rhythm of duty and routine, evoking the sense of being anchored to a single, unchanging place.
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