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Lauren Goodman is a designer who embraces responsive approaches to the local environment and the communities that steward and neglect it. Developing pieces from waste and discarded objects, her minimalist, delicate design sensibility subtly draws attention to alternative material resources, whilst infusing poetry into the upcycling dialogue. Goodman is committed to educating designers on the possibilities of a practice driven by waste reduction and strives to find a balance between user, product and environment. Her recent collections are experiments in place-based design. This includes research about local communities, land and labour history, and working exclusively with materials gleaned from a specific area. Through this process, the product designer seeks non-exploitative design solutions that foreground local communities and reduce environmental harm.
There are about three million lobster traps in Maine’s waters and more than 100,000 are lost each year. Lost or abandoned lobster, crab and other traps plague coastal waters around the globe putting pressure on several already stressed ocean populations. Fresh Catch is conceived from a single lobster trap salvaged off the coast of Maine. The trap was carefully deconstructed, organically rearranged and welded back together creating one of a kind, sculptural furniture design. The materials collection and research for this product design were conducted on the coast of Maine. The piece was fabricated at Goodman's former studio in Providence, Rhode Island.
"I used a series of hand tools to carefully disassemble the lobster trap while maintaining the formal qualities that developed from years of tossing around the ocean. Through this process, I seek to transport found objects from their original context while playfully gesturing to their former function. The disassembled trap was consciously rearranged and welded back together. It was then applied with a durable powder-coated finish," shares Goodman.
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