Shaina Garfield always questions the world around her by challenging what she is taught to be right. As a recent graduate of Pratt Institute with a degree in Industrial Design and a minor in Sustainability, she is excited to use her knowledge to bridge the great divides in today’s world.
Since 2012, Shaina has lived with a chronic illness that has profoundly shaped her role as a designer. As a disabled young adult, she has been given unique perspectives and drive to make the world more inclusive and empathetic. Throughout her journey, Shaina has found healing in connecting to Nature and strives to create a healthier and cleaner world for herself, all beings, and the Earth.
Shaina has exhibited in The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and will be showing her work at Dubai Design Week’s Global Grad Show in November 2018. When she is not having fun working at her local farmers market in Brooklyn, Shaina is a material researcher at Designtex and a WITH Fellow at Frog Design where she is promoting Disability Design. As she shares her passions with the world, Shaina is looking for ways to collaborate with those from different backgrounds in hope of continually creating a better world.
Project: Leaves
Leaves provides us with the opportunity to acknowledge the transformation from death into new life. Made with biodegradable materials, this coffin’s rope has a dye embedded with spores. Once the body is buried, fungus grows to speed up the decomposition. Most importantly, the fungus eats the plethora of toxins in our bodies so only nutrients go into the soil. A tree is then planted above the burial site so the cemetery becomes a beacon of new life.