Mathilde Wittock: From Tennis Balls to Sensory Design

Belgian designer Mathilde Wittock transforms discarded materials, such as used tennis balls and plant roots, into sensory design objects. Her Brussels-based studio MWO, founded in 2024, focuses on local, renewable, and waste-derived materials for furniture, surfaces, and acoustic installations. Wittock's approach goes beyond sustainability, exploring how materials affect sensory perception and spatial experience. A notable project involves cutting used tennis balls along their white line and using the halves as modular elements for surfaces, seating, and panels, preserving their physical identity while altering their visual appearance with pigments and oils. Recent research emphasizes acoustics, studying how materials influence sound and spatial perception, in collaboration with a university. The studio's ongoing studies, including Fractals, Cell Division, Collective Light, Soundscapes, and Root Stem Cells, explore the intersection of matter, biology, and perception. Wittock embraces variability inherent in biological or recovered materials, challenging traditional industrial norms. Her work makes material histories visible and tactile, offering a unique perspective in contemporary design.