As seen in yesterday's post textiles can be used for art projects, but they do have great applications also in architecture, a field in which they can bring further innovations and inspire intriguing projects and installations.
The Danish Pavilion at this year's International Architecture Exhibition in Venice featured for example the research project "Isoropia" by CITA (Centre for Information Technology and Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation), inspired by sustainability and the possibility of reducing waste production during the building process.
Isoropia, a term that in Greek means balance, equilibrium and stability, revolves around a structure made of Dyneema®, a high performance fiber with practically no stretch also known to be the strongest fiber in the world, used in maritime industry for heavy weight lifting or in personal protection gear.
Isoropia represents the possibility for a lighter form of architecture in which material behaviours (such as bending and stretching) can be actively employed.
The project is indeed based on a balance between the tensile forces of bespoke knitted textiles (made with a non elastic fibre that adapts and transforms once it gets knitted and tensioned) and the compressive forces of the bending active fibreglass rods embedded in the textile.
The structure also changes and varies for what regards its form by thickening the fiberglass rods or tensioning the textile protrusions.
There were other projects developed in 2018 that were based on the properties of textiles or that used them in innovative ways, among them there was "Skyshelter.zip", a project for a foldable skyscraper for disaster zones.
Winner of the 2018 Skyscraper Competition, organised by eVolo Magazine and open to architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe, Skyshelter.zip was designed by three students from Poland – Damian Granosik, Jakub Kulisa and Piotr Pańczyk.
Skyshelter.zip is inspired by the natural disasters hitting every year different parts of the world and it is conceived as an immediate solution to manage sudden and unexpected crises.
Earthquakes, floods or hurricanes cause death, loss and destruction in the matter of a few seconds, and often make the help needed impossible to arrive quickly for too many reasons, including the fact that, quite often in these cases, the transportation infrastructures collapse, isolating the disaster areas.
Skyshelter.zip is a multi-purpose hub for any relief operation that can be easily packaged in a box, moved and transported by different units, especially helicopters that can reach a disaster zone even when the road network has collapsed. The structure calls to mind an accordion, but follows the principles of origami since it is foldable and designed to collapse on itself.
Once transported on site, the building can be easily assembled, even on uneven ground as it just needs to be anchored with basic supports.
The structure is unfolded with load-bearing helium balloon placed within (the process can be reversed to disassemble the structure).
Light-weight 3D-printed slabs are attached directly to the balloons in succeeding manner and pulled upwards by its load-bearing force and structural steel wires that, once strained, are capable of resisting horizontal wind forces. Internal and external walls are made with pieces of fabric attached to the slabs that unfold as the structure gets deployed.
The number of floors that unfold depend on the amount of gas poured into the balloons (this allows to mass produce a module for all sorts of events); space division in the structure depends instead from the needs, but the textile building can accomodate different spaces, including a first aid area, temporary housing and storage.
Being vertical the structure occupies a smaller area compared to the one that may be occupied by tents or containers, allowing emergency services to clean up the space where to set it in a shorter time. Besides, the configuration and height of the structure can be used as a landmark visible from large distances, helping guide people affected by catastrophe straight to the relief center.
The structure is made of a nanomaterial based on ETFE foil and infused with a network of small perovskite solar cells. In this way the temporary building produces clean energy especially needed in case of emergency. Rainwater can flow through its hollow centre where it is being cleansed by special filters and collected for further use.
If you are a designer and feel inspired by these projects you can maybe take the discourse further and experiment more with textiles; but, if you think you may have an innovative project for a skyscraper, well, don't miss the chance to take part in the 2019 Skyscraper competition. You can check the competition submission guidelines here.