Summary
Chris sits down with Maddie from Iona College to talk about The Shear Space – an acoustically insulated pod made from New Zealand wool and designed for quiet study, work, or podcasting.
We hear how the project started as a solution for a noisy school library and evolved into a potential business idea, plus the challenges of design, marketing, and learning on the fly at Fieldays.
Photos
Links
Iona College NZ
The Shear Space – Award for Excellence
Show Transcript
This transcript was generated by an AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you have questions about any of the information found here, please reach out to us.
Chris [00:00:00]:
Foreign. Welcome to the Chris and Sam Podcast. Pull up a bar stool and join us for a random conversation guaranteed to make you think. Earn your money back.
Chris [00:00:21]:
Okay, so I’m with Maddie from Iona College in the Hawke’s Bay, and we are going to talk about their thing, which is the share space. So, Maddie, how are you?
Maddie [00:00:33]:
I’m good, thanks.
Chris [00:00:35]:
So tell us a little bit about what it is that you guys are doing here. And we saw you last year and we’re going to come and say hello because I was like, oh, we should do an interview in there because it looks like it’s something that would be quiet for podcasting. So tell us a little bit about your journey from how this started, what it’s all about, and what it’s like coming back for a second year.
Maddie [00:01:00]:
Yes, this would be perfect for a podcast studio. So it’s a soundproof pod made from acoustically tested wool. So the major difference between this year and last year is that we’ve taken more of an architectural approach and gone with a different design that’s a bit more functional and really zeros down on the soundproof. So this is wrapped in 100% New Zealand strong wool that’s been felted and. And it’s just wrapped in it, which creates a really insulated space and makes it really quiet. Yep.
Chris [00:01:30]:
And so it’s purely acoustic as opposed to temperature sort of thing.
Maddie [00:01:36]:
So wool actually naturally does a temperature controlled and it’s very breathable, so it has those bonuses on along with the sound control.
Chris [00:01:44]:
And so this is part of a, I want to say, school project, I’m guessing. So tell me how that works and how it was that you got into the field days.
Maddie [00:01:57]:
So last year we were actually approached by senior leadership at the school and we have a very like open space library and it’s quite loud and I really struggled to study in it. And they said, can you create something that is somewhere that someone can go to study just individually? And so last year we came up with that design. It was quite a quick design and I was more focused on the look aspect of it, whereas this year I’ve zeroed down on the sound and.
Chris [00:02:22]:
Yeah, so functionality this year. And where do you see this going? Is this just a project or you think this will be commercialized or what’s the plan with that?
Maddie [00:02:33]:
I hope that it’s more than just a project because currently I’m entered into scholarship, so design technology scholarship and then obviously under NCEA. But I hope that it can turn into commercialize it. We need to make it, you know, affordable and find something to manufacture it with, but commercialize it. And we have a very big target audience of offices and open plan offices. So hope to see some in some offices and libraries and things.
Chris [00:02:59]:
Yeah. Because I know a couple of the share space places that I’ve been to, they’ve got really expensive pods and like I think they’re from Europe and they are very expensive. Expensive. Really good. But this seems to me like a good idea and obviously we know a lot of people in the, the podcast community having been in it in New Zealand for over a decade now. And I can see a lot of people that would use this. I’m wondering if you could retrofit the back of a van or something like that.
Maddie [00:03:29]:
Yes, for sure. So the company that we actually got the, the wool from, they’re called Flock. And so that’s essentially what they do is they line walls with these panels and makes the space quite sound resistant because the wool absorbs the sound. So you could honestly put this wool anywhere that you wanted it to be. Quiet. Yeah.
Chris [00:03:47]:
Fantastic. Alright now, what has been your biggest challenge thus far in this journey?
Maddie [00:03:54]:
In this journey, I think designing it. To be honest, I have no experience with this, with the building, with the architecture, with the sound and so learning all of these things, it’s been so challenging, but so rewarding and so worth it.
Chris [00:04:06]:
Yeah. There’s only one way to learn anything and it’s to go out and do it. Yep. We’re gonna not do that because Sam’s run off. Sam will edit this out. Okay, so we’ve got a. Oh, there we go. There he is.
Chris [00:04:25]:
We’ve got a couple of questions. We’re going to get you to pick two. Two and choose one. So you only have to answer one of them. It’s the random stack of questions.
Chris [00:04:34]:
This is new for us this year.
Chris [00:04:35]:
Yeah, we’re just doing this for the first time this year. Pick one and then read out the one that you want to pick. So what question have you got there?
Maddie [00:04:45]:
I think I’m gonna go with what’s something you’re learning right now Actively at field days, I am learning about marketing and sales and interacting with people and how to get the best out of just a simple conversation like this. Yeah.
Chris [00:04:58]:
That cannot be over emphasized how important that is. So I’ve done a lot of promo stuff over the years. I’ve done a lot of speaker, speaker coaching and being able to really connect with people all day long, hundreds of them and not get bored is actually a very valuable skill. So good on you. All right, where can people find out more about what you’re doing here and how can they follow you? Social media or whatever.
Maddie [00:05:26]:
On the Iona Instagram and Facebook, which is just at ionacollegenz, I think we also have a website called I think theshear.com and that has all the information that is needed. And yeah, it tells you all about the pod and the build process. And we’ll have a section on field days and how that went.
Chris [00:05:45]:
Yeah. And so for those listening, the share will be S H E A R, as in shearing sheep. And I’m sure you can Google that and find it if you need to. All right, thanks very much, Maddie.
Maddie [00:05:57]:
Thank you so much.
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