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Art meets utility for textile cricket shelters in Qatar

January 1, 2024  |  Features

Some steel framing, shade cloth and oil paint—that seems a simple enough recipe to build shelters for cricket team members while they’re in the hot sun in Lusail, Qatar. But when handled by an artist and design studio, a simple shelter inspired by temporary spaces for construction workers is any…
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Advanced Textiles Expo: Excitement and Renewal

December 6, 2023  |  Expo Report, Features

With a new name and renewed enthusiasm, Advanced Textiles Expo (formerly IFAI Expo) returned to Orlando for the first time since 2019. The show boasted the highest attendance since that pre-COVID show, boosted in no small part by the return of more international exhibitors and attendees.
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John Goodman Amphitheatre at MSU wins design award

December 1, 2023  |  Features

The applause isn’t coming only from Missouri State University (MSU) theater patrons following performances in the university’s new alfresco space, the John Goodman Amphitheatre. This summer, design and development firm Fabritecture won the STA Special Commendation (Internationally Fabricated Pro…
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Textiles help turn mycelium into building material

December 1, 2023  |  Features

A team of scientists and engineers in the Living Textiles Research Group in the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environmentat Newcastle University in Tyne, England, may have produced a cheaper, more eco-friendly alternative to conventional materials, such as foam, timber and plastic, using myceli…
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Year-round thermal comfort with ETFE 

November 1, 2023  |  Features

How do you provide for animals and plants that normally are found in Southeast Asia (latitude 10 degrees north of the Equator) in a building that is located at 52 degrees latitude, and in the winter can cope with average seasonal temps around 40°F?
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Textiles enhance public and private spaces

November 1, 2023  |  Features

The great urban critic Jane Jacobs—known for her highly influential and transformative 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities—noted that there are many repeatable factors that can determine the success of public spaces, not the least being that any neighborhood could be deemed wel…
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Andrea Lynn on how shade sails have kept her creative

November 1, 2023  |  Features

It takes less than a five-minute conversation with Andrea Lynn to appreciate her earnest enthusiasm for shade sails—which is why her reflection on a decades-long career in the industry may come as a surprise. “I jumped into the business with rose-colored glasses on,” she muses. “This journey…
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Poetic dialogue between factory and office

October 1, 2023  |  Features

There is a taut geometric synergy at the Enrich Life Bio-Tec headquarters in Ningbo, China, where the head office building—a multifaceted “diamond”—and the attendant factory building—a sleek, gently arcing semicircle—talk to each other over a calm reflective pool of water.
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Advanced Textiles Expo: New name, improved event

October 1, 2023  |  Features

Join thousands of textile professionals for the first Advanced Textiles Expo (formerly known as IFAI Expo). Orlando is always a great location for the industry’s flagship event, and this year we are partnering once again with Sun Shading Expo North America. Connect with the industry for four days …
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Outdoor fabrics: School spirit via banners, tarps and more

October 1, 2023  |  Features

When high schools and colleges resume classes every fall, outdoor sports are underway too. Fabrics play a key role in training and in the way stadiums and other sports facilities look.
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