Dr Holly McQuillan

Holly McQuillan is Assistant Professor in Multimorphic Textile Systems TU Delft, where her research explores the design and development of complex interconnected fibre-yarn-textile-form systems as a means for transforming how we design, manufacture, use, and recover textile-based forms.

Oriented through a holistic lens, her research builds on her experience developing and disseminating the field of zero waste fashion design, and advocates for a new understanding of the relationship between designer and system, material, and form to conceptualise and prototype alternative futures.


Publications

  • Designing a Toolkit to Explore the Design Space of Woven Textiles

    Voorwinden, M., Klop, S., & McQuillan, H. (2026). Designing a Toolkit to Explore the Design Space of Woven Textiles. In L. Simeone et al. (Eds.), DRS2026: Research Papers (Proceedings of DRS, vol. 2026), 305. Design Research Society. TU Delft Research Portal

  • WarpForm: An Accessible Loom Add-On for Weaving 3D and Non-Rectangular Textile-forms

    Klop, S., Borrego, M., Voorwinden, M., & McQuillan, H. (2026). WarpForm: An Accessible Loom Add-On for Weaving 3D and Non-Rectangular Textile-forms. Textile Intersections 2026, London. Design Research Society. Link

  • Shaped Circular Knitting for Zero Waste Design: A Material-Driven Approach to Knitted Textile-Forms

    Janssen, S., & McQuillan, H. (2026). Shaped Circular Knitting for Zero Waste Design: A Material-Driven Approach to Knitted Textile-Forms. Textile Intersections 2026, London. Design Research Society. Link

  • Multimorphic Material Thinking for Sustainable HCI.

    McQuillan, H., & Karana, E. (2025). Multimorphic Material Thinking for Sustainable HCI. Interactions, 32(4), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.1145/3735964

  • A Design Space for Animated Textile-forms through Shuttle Weaving: A Case of 3D Woven Trousers

    Voorwinden, M., Buso, A., Karana, E. and McQuillan, H. (2025). A Design Space for Animated Textile-forms through Shuttle Weaving: A Case of 3D Woven Trousers. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25), 2465 DIS ’25, July 05–09, 2025, Funchal, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715336.3735741

  • Exploring Everyday Experiences of a Multimorphic Textile-form Artifact.

    Buso, A., McQuillan, H., Jansen, K., Verma, H., & Karana, E. (2025). Exploring Everyday Experiences of a Multimorphic Textile-form Artifact. International Journal of Design, 19(3), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.57698/v19i3.01

  • Woven Textile-Form Design: A Method to Design Woven 3D Form

    Voorwinden, M., & McQuillan, H. (2025). Woven Textile-Form Design: A Method to Design Woven 3D Form. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/20511787.2025.2567765

  • Multistable Leno Woven Textiles.

    Voorwinden, M., Andersen, K., & McQuillan, H. (2025). Multistable Leno Woven Textiles. In UbiComp Companion 2025: Companion of the 2025 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (pp. 534–538). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3714394.3750710

  • AnimaTo: Designing a Multimorphic Textile Artefact for Performativity

    Buso, A., McQuillan, H., Jansen, K., & Karana, E. (2024). Anima To: Designing a Multimorphic Textile Artefact for Performativity. In A. Vallgårda, L. Jönsson, J. Fritsch, S. Fdili Alaoui, & C. A. Le Dantec (Eds.), DIS '24: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 20-34). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
    https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660738

  • (Re)activate, (Re)direct, (Re)arrange: Exploring the Design Space of Direct Interactions with Flavobacteria

    Risseeuw, C., McQuillan, H., Martins, J., & Karana, E. (2024). (Re)activate, (Re)direct, (Re)arrange: Exploring the Design Space of Direct Interactions with Flavobacteria. In F. F. Mueller, P. Kyburz, J. R. Williamson, C. Sas, M. L. Wilson, P. T. Dugas, & U. Shklovski (Eds.), CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems (pp. 1-18). Article 705 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642262

  • Design for serene textile experiences: A toolkit

    Parisi, S., McQuillan, H., and Karana, E. (2024) Design for serene textile experiences: A toolkit, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA.
    https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1012

  • 3D woven denim as an exemplary design manufacturing technique to shape sustainable fashion ecosystems

    de Jager, S., McQuillan, H., & Mulder, I. (2024). 3D Woven Denim as an Exemplary Design-Manufacturing Technique to Shape Sustainable Fashion Ecosystems. DISCERN: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 5(2), 51–68. TU Delft repository

  • Weaving Textile-form Interfaces: A Material-Driven Design Journey

    Buso, A., McQuillan, H., Voorwinden, M., & Karana, E. (2023). Weaving Textile-form Interfaces: A Material-Driven Design Journey. In DIS '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
    https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596086

  • Conformal, Seamless, Sustainable: Multimorphic Textile-forms as a Material-Driven Design Approach for HCI

    McQuillan, H. L., & Karana, E. (2023). Conformal, Seamless, Sustainable: Multimorphic Textile-forms as a Material-Driven Design Approach for HCI. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23). (pp. 1-19). Article 727 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
    https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581156

  • Living artefacts for regenerative ecologies.

    Karana, E., McQuillan, H. L., Rognoli, V., & Giaccardi, E. (2023). Living artefacts for regenerative ecologies. Research Directions: Biotechnology Design, 1, Article e16.
    https://doi.org/10.1017/btd.2023.10

  • Towards Performative Woven Textile-form Interfaces

    Buso, A., McQuillan, H., Voorwinden, M., & Karana, E. (2023). Towards Performative Woven Textile-form Interfaces. In Textile Intersections 2023 Design Research Society. https://doi.org/10.21606/TI-2023/106.

  • The Circular Techno-Aesthetics of Woven Textile-forms: A Material and Process-driven Design Exploration

    McQuillan, H., Voorwinden, M., Arts, B., & Vroom, B. (2023). The Circular Techno-Aesthetics of Woven Textile-forms: A Material and Process-driven Design Exploration. In K. Niinimäki, & K. Cura (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th PLATE Conference: Product Lifetimes And The Environment (pp. 649-659). (Aalto University publication series ART + DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE, 3/2023). Aalto University.
    https://research.tudelft.nl/files/159564585/PLATE23_isbn9789526413679.pdf

  • Methods for Designing Woven Textile-forms: Examples from a pedagogical textile design workshop.

    Drews, J. A., McQuillan, H., & Mosse, A. (2023). Methods for Designing Woven Textile-forms: Examples from a pedagogical textile design workshop. Textile Intersections, DRS. https://doi.org/10.21606/TI-2023/113