AURIS

Role: Research, sketching, CAD and rendering
Team: Solo project
Year: Jan–May 2024
Tools: Fusion 360, Blender, Photoshop
Type: Course project, Form Design and Visual Perception · Linköping University

A speaker, a pair of headphones and a set of acoustic wall panels, all built on one organic form taken from the shape of the human ear.

The process

01UnderstandAn electrical product with organic forms, and a search that went from the sea to the ear.The brief · From the sea to the ear
02IdeateSketches from the spiral, through the anemone, to the ear.Sketching
03DevelopThe speaker modelled in Fusion 360, rendered in Blender, in a body of Matek.Form and build · Material
04ExpandThe same form as a speaker, headphones and acoustic wall panels.One form, three products · R4
05ReflectWhy the next step would be a physical prototype.Looking back

Understand01 01

The brief

The task was to design an electrical product with organic forms. Auris was my first design project, and I worked on it alone from research to final renderings.

Understand01 02

From the sea to the ear

I started from Bowers & Wilkins' Nautilus speaker and its shell-like spiral, then moved on to sea anemones, shells and sea urchins.

In the end I landed in the shape of the ear. A form that collects sound felt like the right one for a product that gives it out.

Moodboard with sea anemones, shells, sea urchins, shell-shaped speakers and an ear — Moodboard: anemones, shells, shell-shaped speakers and, finally, the ear

Ideate02 03

Sketching

Once the ear was there, I tried out how two drivers could sit in a soft, organic body.

Sketch of a spiral speaker with a driver at its base — The spiral

Colour sketch of a speaker shaped like a sea anemone on three legs — The anemone

Sketch of a wavy speaker body with two drivers on a textured base

Sketch of a speaker body with a round and a slot-shaped opening

Sketch of a speaker with two drivers set in hollows

Sketch of an organic speaker with an opening at the top

Shaded sketch close to the final Auris form — Close to the final form

The outline of the ear became the outline of the speaker.

Develop03 04

Form and build

I modelled the speaker in Fusion 360 and rendered it in Blender. It is 30 cm tall, with two drivers set into hollows in the body and a round control panel on top.

The Auris speaker on a pale blue-grey background — AURIS in the sand finish, rendered in Blender.

Develop03 05

Material

The body is meant to be press-moulded in Matek, a material developed by the Danish company Mater.

Matek mixes a fibre with a binder. For Auris the fibre is coffee bean shells, a by-product of roasting, and the binder is recycled plastic. Parts can be ground down and moulded again.

Two floating cubes in the speaker's stone-like surface, one charcoal and one sand-coloured — Charcoal and sand, rendered in Vizcom.

Expand04 06

One form, three products

AURIS 45 are panels that hang on the wall and dampen echoes and reverberation in the room.

The Auris family in a room: the speaker on a plinth, the R4 headphones on a sideboard and two AURIS 45 panels on the wall — The family in one room: the AURIS speaker, R4 on the sideboard and two AURIS 45 panels on the wall.

AURIS 45: two halves of the same curve, turned against each other and covered in woven fabric.

The AURIS 45 wall panel — A cut from the ear's outline becomes the curve of AURIS 45.

Expand04 07

R4

R4 carries the same form language. The ear cups are a vertical slice of the speaker, so their outline holds the same cut from the ear.

R4 in white fabric, with brushed aluminium cups and arms.

An R4 ear cup seen from the side — In the side of the ear cup.

I rendered R4 in Blender.

Reflect05 08

Looking back

Auris stayed in CAD and renderings. It never reached a physical prototype, so I never got to test how Matek works in the speaker's shape or how it affects the sound. That would be the next step.