FlexFacades innovation turns parking garage into art

February 1, 2024  |  Features

Parking garages are not typically the prettiest buildings on the block. But with a little tensile fabric and some architectural panache, a structure that may typically lean toward eyesore can feel more like an urban sculpture.
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Watching out for greenwashing in your supply chain

January 1, 2024  |  Features

In a world where consumers are concerned about sustainability, being environmentally conscious and seeking ethically sourced products, textile manufacturers need to ensure that companies throughout their supply chain aren’t engaging in misleading or deceptive environmental or sustainability claims…
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Functional and fanciful fabric sculptures embrace Google building

January 1, 2024  |  Features

When Google’s Bay View campus opened in Mountain View, Calif., last year, employees entering the largest building were greeted by sculptural fabric elements, Eddy and Shroud, designed by Jenny Sabin Studio. They stand tall in the open courtyard area, where there are collaboration spaces and cafes.…
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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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