Touch-Activated Color-Changing Chairs

Jacob Walls, a London designer and graduate from Central Saint Martins has designed the Pangolin seating collection. It changes color in response to touch, leaving behind body parts that engage with the chair due to the heat reaction. To do this, he uses industrial foam materials that were left unupholstered and then colored it with thermochromic dye, which has heat-sensitive pigments that work similarly to a mood ring.

Walls explains, "I was interested in creating a piece that felt alive, something that didn't just occupy space, but responded to it. [...] Each section was dyed individually, allowing for subtle tonal shifts across the surface. Exposing a material that's usually hidden, like foam, aligns with the work's focus on revealing often unseen relationships between people and objects. And I liked the idea of trying to create new value and desire for a material that's often overlooked – in this case, factory offcuts."

Image Credit: Jacob Wall