Laura Papp, the designer of the laurapapp brand, creates accessories and shoes as well. Her newest project is the HEEL2 which consists of four concept shoes that can be turned from high heels to flat heel with minimal gesture. The first position is a totally flat; the second is a high heel, around 11 cm hight. The two positions can change back and forth.
Laura has been always interested in the creation of plain objects that can be turned into 3D objects and the other way around. The Heel2 embodies the modern footwear, which can transform according to the metropolitan situation. The playfulness and the sight of transformation make everyone smile who is sensitive for design.
At the beginning of the planning methods, she needed to determine the material because it can closely relate with the nodes. Many alternatives were suggested for the problem, like rubber, injection molding and carbon but she didn't want to define the final one in her masterwork so she decided to use 3D printing method in this level of the project.
To make the shoes stable, she had to work with triangles and buttress every moving and flexible element. Another important aspect of this design was to take the soles arch apart. This solution was needed because by certain technical solutions, she was only able to create angles instead of arches.
The fixing technique had to keep the standing heels on their place and it needed to be complicated so that they won’t close while walking. Several alternative solutions were considered to fix the flexible points but finally She choose hinging because it is strong and can be used on every different point. Each shoe is closed with a lowered magnet, but all of them moved in different ways. In the first case the arms turn inside out along an axis and the heel components close on each other. In the second shoe’s case a trapeze-shaped arm supports the heel. In the third and fourth shoe the triangles flaps provide the stability of the heel, which are pop in the groove on the sole so this way they won't move for sure.
This is amazing