FTSF programme: linking design and technology for sustainable textile solutions
The Future Technologies for Sustainable Fashion (FTSF) programme is an initiative designed to explore the intersection of fashion and technology through a critical lens focused on sustainability, future scarcity, and space habitation. Coordinated by IED Barcelona in partnership with Fabricademy – FabLab Barcelona of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), the programme creates a multidisciplinary environment that combines resources and methodologies from both institutions. These include embodied design ideation, research through design, digital fabrication, and synthetic biology open labs.
Students engage in collaborative, hands-on learning experiences, employing first-person perspectives and multiverse thinking to develop innovative solutions to societal challenges. This programme emphasises ideation and prototyping approaches centred on design and practical application where mixed teams from the two institutions lead the projects, guided by a multidisciplinary pool of experts.
Participants address key challenges, such as mitigating the environmental impact of the fashion industry and reimagining how fashion is designed, produced, consumed, and discarded. Over 12 weeks, teams have the opportunity to research and develop prototypes using agile manufacturing technologies, advanced materials, and wearable computing.
“The programme provided students with a comprehensive perspective on the textile and technology industries, equipping them with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to integrate sustainable design strategies into the fashion field. It offered a unique opportunity to challenge fashion designers to understand and apply technologies typically outside their sector. Moreover, by engaging in dialogues with scientists, students experienced a transformative shift in mindset, opening up new perspectives that will influence their professional practice. It has also been challenging for the coordination and academic team to adapt the programme contents to ATTRACT technologies and relate them to textile and fashion design,
commented Marina Ojan, Head of Master School IED Barcelona and coordinator of FTSF.
Through three rounds under ATTRACT phase 2, the FTSF programme has engaged 39 students between designers, engineers and architects from IAAC and fashion and product designers from IED Barcelona, developing 12 innovative proposals in textile and fashion production processes, and sustainable product development, among others. Participants collaborated with some ATTRACT technologies: H3D-VISIOnAIR, MEGAMORPH and AHEAD.
Here you can watch a video of the FTSF programme:
For additional information about the programme, visit here.