Pangolin Seating by Jacob Walls: Colour-Changing Furniture That Reacts to Touch
Imagine sitting down and watching your presence linger—not just in memory, but in color. That’s exactly what London designer and Central Saint Martins graduate Jacob Walls explores with his surreal and sensorial seating collection, Pangolin. Inspired by vintage thermochromic streetwear and the shifting hues of mood rings, these benches don’t just support the body—they respond to it.
With ghostly imprints of hands, knees, and silhouettes, the Pangolin benches change color in real time, revealing an uncanny visual memory of touch. It’s furniture that remembers—temporarily.
A Mood Ring for Your Living Room
Walls drew inspiration from Stone Island’s legendary Ice Jackets—thermochromic coats that debuted in 1989—blending this archival tech with his passion for streetwear and sustainable design. The result is a collection of benches made from industrial foam offcuts, dyed by hand with heat-reactive pigments that respond to the warmth of the human body.
“I was interested in creating a piece that felt alive—something that didn’t just occupy space, but responded to it,” says Walls. And Pangolin does exactly that. When you sit, lean, or even brush against the surface, the heat-sensitive foam changes color, creating ethereal, shifting patterns that slowly fade as the temperature evens out.
Material as Message
Beyond its mesmerizing surface, Pangolin makes a subtle but significant commentary on waste and value. By using discarded foam scraps—a material usually hidden beneath layers of upholstery—Walls flips conventional design on its head.
“Exposing a material that’s usually hidden, like foam, aligns with the work’s focus on revealing unseen relationships between people and objects,” he explains. His approach creates new value from the overlooked, challenging our understanding of luxury, function, and aesthetic.
To create a cohesive form from irregular scraps, Walls wove foam strips through a metal grid frame, creating a surface that appears bulbous, sectioned, and armoured—not unlike the scales of a pangolin. The name isn’t just metaphor; it’s a material translation of a living, breathing form.
A Tactile Experience
Each foam segment is individually dyed, allowing for tonal shifts and organic color patterns across the surface. Walls engineered a flexible binder to mix with the thermochromic dye, ensuring the material remains supple—no cracking, no stiffness, just movement and memory.
The effect is intimate, almost eerie: a bench that visually “remembers” where you’ve been, responding to your presence like a living thing. The simple hand-turned wood or metal legs serve only to elevate the form—literally and metaphorically—while keeping the focus on the ever-changing surface.
Design That Feels Alive
Pangolin is part of a growing wave of responsive furniture that blurs the boundaries between object and organism, passive and participatory. In the same spirit as Joe Doucet’s climate-reactive house paint, which changes color with the seasons to aid in energy efficiency, Walls’ project explores how materials can interact with their environments—and with us.
In a world increasingly saturated with technology, Pangolin reminds us that sensation, memory, and design don’t have to be digital to be dynamic. Sometimes, a bench that changes color is enough to make you feel something.
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