Microbiologically Activated Knitted Composites Reimagining a column for the 21st century

Microbiologically Activated Knitted Composites Reimagining a column for the 21st century

Beyer, Bastian; Suárez, Daniel; Palz, Norbert

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A column is an archetypal constituent of architecture which historicallyunderwent constant reiteration in accordance with the prevalent architecturalstyle, material culture or technical and structural possibilities. The projectreimagined this architectural element through harnessing the synergies of digitaldesign, textile logic, and contemporary biotechnology. Textile materiality andaesthetic are deeply rooted in architectural history as a soft and ephemeralantipode to rigid building materials. An investigation in historic mechanicalhand-knitting techniques allowed to extract their underlying structural andgeometric logic to develop a structural optimisation pipeline with a graded yarnas a base material and a geometric optimization based on local distribution ofknitting patterns. Bacterially driven biocalcification was applied to transform thesoft textile structure into a rigid material. Hereby an active textile microbiomewas established through colonizing of the yarn with the bacterium S. pasteuriiwhich successively precipitated calcite on microscale within the textile substratehence ultimately influencing the global structural behaviour of the column.

A column is an archetypal constituent of architecture which historicallyunderwent constant reiteration in accordance with the prevalent architecturalstyle, material culture or technical and structural possibilities. The projectreimagined this architectural element through harnessing the synergies of digitaldesign, textile logic, and contemporary biotechnology. Textile materiality andaesthetic are deeply rooted in architectural history as a soft and ephemeralantipode to rigid building materials. An investigation in historic mechanicalhand-knitting techniques allowed to extract their underlying structural andgeometric logic to develop a structural optimisation pipeline with a graded yarnas a base material and a geometric optimization based on local distribution ofknitting patterns. Bacterially driven biocalcification was applied to transform thesoft textile structure into a rigid material. Hereby an active textile microbiomewas established through colonizing of the yarn with the bacterium S. pasteuriiwhich successively precipitated calcite on microscale within the textile substratehence ultimately influencing the global structural behaviour of the column.

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DOI: 10.5151/proceedings-ecaadesigradi2019_619

Referências bibliográficas

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Como citar:

Beyer, Bastian; Suárez, Daniel; Palz, Norbert; "Microbiologically Activated Knitted Composites Reimagining a column for the 21st century", p-541-552. In: Proceedings of 37 eCAADe and XXIII SIGraDi Joint Conference, “Architecture in the Age of the 4Th Industrial Revolution”, Porto 2019, Sousa, José Pedro; Henriques, Gonçalo Castro; Xavier, João Pedro (eds.). São Paulo: Blucher, 2019.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/proceedings-ecaadesigradi2019_619