ECOVATIVE GROWN MATERIALS

Ecovative are a New York based research group who are growing a new material using fungi. The process uses an organic aggregate, such as seed husk or other agricultural / industrial by products, as its base. This aggregate is mixed with mycelium fungi and packed into a former to give it the desired geometry. Being a loose aggregate it will fill any former created. The mixture is then left for several days, over which time the fungi grows into a microscopic web of fibres which bond the aggregate into a solid mass. This growth requires no water, light or petrochemical inputs. Every cubic inch of material contains a matrix of 8 miles of tiny mycelial fibres. At the end of the process, they put the materials through a dehydration and heat treating process to stop the growth. This final process ensures that there will never be any spores or allergen concerns.
The company are currently exploring applications of the material in multiple industries from packaging and consumer products to architecture and automotive manufacture. They are also looking for potential partners with which to develop aspects of the material further.

More info: http://www.ecovativedesign.com/

BLOOD GLUE – FIRST EXPERIMENTS

 
Here are the results of my initial experiments in developing a blood based glue for used as a structural binding agent. Unfortunately the glue was not entirely successful due to its setting by water loss as opposed to chemical reaction. On to round 2…

FULL DUNE CREST POURING

The culmination of the crest pouring and component diversion technique… The pouring of a full dune in RealFlow to create the superstructure of the building. On the south facade large components create circular openings in the structure which are able to house fresnel concentration lenses. On the north facade smaller components create a thickened bottom edge to diffuse light back into the interior space.

srpLAB - Santiago R. Perez

Reblogged from FuturesPlus:

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Today we are coming at you with another fabrication studio that has allowed students and professors to delve into the trending world or architectural fabrication.  Over past couple years using and understanding the dynamics that tools and the modeling programs can bring to the world of architecture is increasingly important.  Digital Fabrication actually in itself has become a craft, as professor Santiago Perez and his students at University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of Architecture know all too well. 

Read more… 217 more words

Inspiring blog post on srpLAB – Santiago R. Perez by futuresplus.wordpress.com

DIVERTING COMPONENTS WITH REALFLOW

As a continuation in the development of the Crest Pouring technique, diverting components are introduced in order to gain control over the flow paths of the material. These videos show a series of initial experiments in RealFlow, which help to understand how different components placed in different configurations have a specific effect on the material flow. These experiments will now be backed up by more specific investigations and physical experiments.

Plankton Inspired Promotion Pavilion

“ Pohl Architects have designed the Cocoon_FS for PlanktonTech, a German research institution that studies plankton. The form was inspired by a type of phytoplankton called diatoms, and is made of fibre-reinforced polymer panels. PlanktonTech will travel around the world and use Cocoon_FS to promote their work.”

“The Cocoon_FS pavilion was constructed from leaf-like panels of fiber-reinforced polymer. Fifteen original base modules were designed and a total of 220 modules were manufactured. Each panel fastens to the next to form a super strong, self-supporting dome. Its translucent shell admits light during the day and illuminates its surroundings at night.

The temporary featherweight structure weighs in at just 1650 pounds and measures under ten feet tall. Both exterior and interior walls carry the same variety of pores, ribs, minute spines, marginal ridges and elevations that characterize the silica cell wall of the slimy brown surface algae that inspired it. Researchers at PlanktonTech used microtechnology to transfer the richly patterned shells of the plankton to a 3D model. Those models were then analyzed and optimized using various computations to unlock biomechanical qualities and re purpose them for architectural design.

Algae is growing in popularity among biofuel enthusiasts, food developers, and entrepreneurs, but as far as we know, the Cocoon_FS is the first prefab to take its design cues from phytoplankton. The plankton-inspired building made its debut in Germany and will be erected at sites around the world in an effort to draw support, awe, and admiration for PlanktonTech’s ongoing investigation of plankton-based solutions.”

Via Inhabitat and Contemporist

 

 

 

The tower of David

In last February, the NY Times wrote an article about a very interesting skyscraper in Caracas, the Torre de David,  that seems to carry a good analogy with the current Venezuelan situation since Hugo Chavez has been elected since 1999. In fact this 150 meter tall building is currently hosting about 2500 squatters who find in it, a good way to dwell in this housing crisis time. This skyscraper that was originally supposed to become an architectural symbol and an economically operative building of the Financial power never finished its construction because of the national financial crisis in the late 90′s.

To read more:

http://www.domusweb.it/it/architecture/la-torre-di-david/

Wikihouse – Open Source DIY kits to build a house

“ WikiHouse is the ultimate self-assembly kit: an open-source construction set that lets you build your own home from online templates. Download the plans, source the parts and get building — your new home can be up by dusk. The designs require no formal skills: assembly is a 3D jigsaw, with numbered pieces that slot together and are hammered down. And there’s no need for power tools — even the included mallet is computer numerical control (CNC) milled.

Alastair Parvin, architect at 00:/, the London design practice behind WikiHouse, says the logic of economist John Maynard Keynes (“it’s easier to ship recipes than cakes and biscuits”) applies to these homes. By putting design into the public domain, WikiHouse hopes to incite real change. “That’s the ambition of the project,” says Parvin. “To lower the threshold to making your own house.”

It is based on 10 Design Principles:

10 DESIGN PRINCIPLES

1. ‘Be lazy like a fox’. Rather than solving problems from scratch, adapt other people’s solutions, and then give them credit. Linus Torvalds thought of this phrase.

1. Design for materials and components which are reasonably cheap to buy, low-carbon and fully recyclable or biodegradable.

1. Design is disruptive when it lowers the threshold. Design structures which can be assembled with minimal formal skill or training, and without the use of power tools.

1. WikiHouses should be capable of being habitable throughout the year, and as efficient as possible in the use of energy and water. We are working to get to the first habitable WikiHouse prototype built in the near future.

1. Design in such a way as to offer maximum provision for the safety, security and health (both mental and physical) of the users at all stages of the structure’s life.

1. As a general rule, design for the climate, culture, economy and legal / planning framework in which you live, and you know best. Others will then be able to adapt the design to suit their environment.

1. Share your work as much and as openly as possible, it might come back better. At very least you’ll have contributed to solving a common problem. All components on WikiHouse are shared under a creative commons license, and authors are always attributed.

1. “It is easier to ship recipes than cakes and biscuits” – John Maynard Keynes

1. Design to dismantle. The easier it is to dismantle structures or replace individual parts, the better.

1. Design for mistakes. Try to design components which either make it impossible for the assembler to get it wrong or are designed in such a way that it doesn’t matter if they do.

Below some image of the house in the London studio 00:/

Via Wired

PLUG-IN – Endemic Intertices

PLUG-IN (Endemic Interstices) is a research group within the Architectural Association’s School of Architctures DRL. The group is formed of Alexandre Kuroda, Dağhan Çam, Karoly Markos,
Ulak Ha, supported by their tutors Alisa Andrasek (Biothing) / Jose Sanchez
 and technical advisor Riccardo Merello (Arup). The team have been working on this project for more than a year and on the 20th January 2012 held their final public jury at the AA. The thesis simulates the cracks with a particle-spring system using processing and partly soft image. Their documentation of their project explains the transition from a natural rule system, into a digital presentation of form, control and behaviour, developing their interpretation of the natural systems/rules of cracked mud into an architectural form.

The main driver of the thesis is a nonlinear fabrication technique that utilises cracks in clay soil as a formwork for casting intricate structures. By programming the material behaviour and exposing it to certain environmental condition we are able to control the emergence of a wide range of crack patterns which are responsible for different performative qualities such as structural stability, solar shading and airflow modulation consequent to their morphological features of different size, density and porosity. The deployment of the system on site employes earth works protocols and Top Down construction techniques in order to achieve a temporary scaffold.

http://pluginarchitects.com/

TETRA

TETRA is an installation that exploits the potential of mass participation to create a form that emerges from the interactions of hundreds of people with the construction system over a number of days.

Inspired by the work of R. Buckminster Fuller into space-packing polyhedra, it explores the unique three dimensional geometrical properties of the regular tetrahedron and related ‘tetrahelices’ [also known Boerdijk–Coxeter Helices]. Their geometries provide an invisible framework for the participants to work within. The modular tetrahedral construction system will be used by the participants to create forms that automatically diverge from one another.

These in turn provide spaces separated from other participants for individuals to pause and reflect on the location and nature of their surroundings. TETRA’s position out on the edge of Black Rock City means that once the structure starts to take shape, participants will be able to climb to positions that afford views across the city. Just as Burning Man asks participants to take a step back from the consumer capitalism, so TETRA allows participants to step back and view Black Rock City as a whole

TETRA is a modular kit of parts that are assembled by participants into a structure that changes form over the course of the festival. There are 160 modules, each one a tetrahedron made from four equilateral triangle shaped pieces of CNC cut exterior plywood. Each triangular face has a hole cut from its centre which, as well as decreasing the overall weight of the module, allows the modules to become rungs in a structure that can be climbed up, on, in and through.

The ply edges of the four plywood triangles are bound together with rope to ensure a joint that can transmit loads in tension from one sheet of ply to the adjacent two. There are pre-drilled re-enforced holes near each vertex to allow for adjacent modules to be bolted together with bolts and wing-nuts by participants.

Each module is designed for one person to carry while climbing sections of the structure already built. The participants are able to climb any of the structure that is already built, and bolt their new module onto the existing structure. Once built, participants are able to climb up, select a module to remove and move to another place. This means that the overall form is not set by the designer, but emerges from the collective desires of a large group of participants.

Because of the intrinsic geometry of tetrahedra and tetrahelices, the form will always contain diverging branches with inhabitable spaces within them.