Spinning the web of a structure

May 1, 2013  |  Features, Landscapes

New digitally-driven technology explores what it means to build buildings. By Marc Swackhamer In November 2012 the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart, led by Professors Achim Menges and Jan Kni…
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Fabricating an art-filled forest

May 1, 2013  |  Features, Landscapes

Finding a way through the woods via fabric gateways. By Mason Riddle GuildWorks: Architecture of the Air, a team of creative types based out of Portland, Ore., makes their client’s life easier by designing all manner of fabric installations for spaces and events, large or small, temporary or p…
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Legacy, what legacy?

January 23, 2013  |  Exteriors

As reported in the New York Times business section on Jan. 23, the London Olympic authorities are having trouble finding uses for many of last summer’s Olympic Games venues as promised, most notably the main Olympic Stadium. Fabric Architecture reported on many of the temporary venues in the N…
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Dynamic skins on the desert

January 1, 2013  |  Case Studies, Exteriors, Features

A recent conference on high rise structures revealed a creative shade solution. By Mark Zeh In June 2012, the Al-Bahar Towers, designed by the international architecture firm, Aedas of London, England, opened in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. These twin towers are located on a gateway site on the …
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Walking atop the O2 Dome

January 1, 2013  |  Exteriors, Features, Structure Basics

Visitors to London during the 2012 Summer Olympics had a unique perspective atop the Dome. Now that the dust has settled on the London Olympics, the story can be told about how ordinary people were able to walk up the fabric roof of the O2 Dome (formerly Millennium Dome), and survive the winds and w…
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Twin canopies set the stage

January 1, 2013  |  Exteriors, Features

A pair of new fabric canopies helps a school fulfill its mission. Denton Community College, near Manchester, England, is a comprehensive school for boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 16. It specializes in performing arts and sports. A recent £24 million addition to the school expanded i…
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A colorful canopy “UR” way

January 1, 2013  |  Exteriors, Features, Graphics

An undulating and colorful canopy brings praise, and customers, to a seaside haunt. Yogurt UR Way, a new business on the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk in Hollywood, Fla., needed an entry canopy for an existing building it was adapting for its newest franchise shop. Awnings of Hollywood, designers and fa…
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Supporting the arts at Papier 11

January 1, 2013  |  Exteriors, Features

An architectural installation enhances the event’s rental tent. The annual Papier art event is organized by AGAC (Association des galeries d’art contemporain), a not-for-profit organization whose primary mandate is to further the recognition and prosperity of the contemporary art market …
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Heat responsive tension structures

January 1, 2013  |  Interiors, News

Graduate students Felecia Davis and Delia Dumitrescu recently presented their research on interactive, knitted tension structures that respond to heat or electrical current. Using a tubular knitting machine, with electronic circuits running throughout the fabrics tested, Davis (a PhD candidate at MI…
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Interior textiles: Part 1

January 1, 2013  |  Features, Interiors

Laying out the context and history of tensioned fabric interiors. By Nicholas Goldsmith Unlike exterior fabric structures, such as tensile architecture and textile facades, interior fabric environments are able to use a greater diversity of materials because they aren’t required to withstand t…
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