Bucky Fuller’s Biosphere celebrates 50 years

May 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Constructed as the epitome of the future and the central featured pavilion at Montreal’s Expo 67, R. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome is now 50 years old. Known as the Biosphere, the structure was the hit of the 1967 World’s Fair. Enclosed with trapezoidal acrylic inserts in the metal open-l…
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Danes plant a knitted round tower in a Portugal square

May 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Practicing architects and students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (RDAF) Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation created an experimental structure to highlight a World Cultural Heritage Site in Guimaraes, Portugal. Hybrid Tower is made of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) rods…
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What a web they weave—Uni Stutt’s robots string carbon & glass fibers overhead

May 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Researchers and students are finding inspiration in the webs that moths spin. The collaborators are from the University of Stuttgart’s Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE). The researchers and student have applied their efforts …
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U.K. journal pays tribute to Zaha Hadid

May 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News, People

British architecture magazine, The Architect’s Journal, has produced a 27-minute video to commemorate the work of Zaha Hadid, the iconoclastic Iraqi-born architect who died in early 2016. The video captures the breadth and width of Hadid’s work, from her first drawings and paintings produced whi…
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Catching water in a colorful way

May 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Fabric funnels create an award-winning shade-water pavilion in New Orleans Students at the Tulane School of Architecture (TSA), New Orleans, La., have created the distinctive Hollygrove Shade-Water Pavilion that fulfills both aesthetic and practical requirements. The project, created through the Alb…
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IFAI’s Advanced Textiles Conference: Testing Program 2017

April 3, 2017  |  Industry News, News

At the 2017 Advanced Textiles Conference (ATC), four educational tracks—military, medical, smart fabrics and testing—will give attendees the latest news on the processes, products and profit potential in working with high-tech fabrics and fabrication techniques. The Advanced Textiles Conference,…
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Reinforced hydrogels prove stronger than steel

April 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan have developed a new material that is 25 times tougher than glass fiber fabric, 100 times tougher than hydrogels, and five times stronger than carbon steel, based on the amount of energy needed to destroy them. “The fiber-reinforced hydrogels, with a 40 …
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New addition at Iceland airport cuts the glare

April 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Iceland’s international Keflavik Airport has added a new 4,700-square meter terminal, and designers are using a unique light-filtering façade that relies on fabric. Andersen & Sigurdsson Architects, Frederiksberg, Denmark, and Teikin Architects, Reykjavik, Iceland, specified Sefar aluminum-co…
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Flexing their fabric muscles

April 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Researchers at Linköping University and the University of Borås in Sweden have created what they’re calling “wearable artificial muscles” by coating fabric with electro active polymers that stretch and flex when an electric current is applied. The researchers layered the fibers in a way that…
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Gaudi-inspired design includes interactive responses

April 1, 2017  |  Industry News, News

Design studio SOFTlab, New York, N.Y., invited the collaboration of IBM’s supercomputer Watson to help design a unique installation for the Mobile World Congress recently held in Barcelona, Spain. The installation was suspended from the ceiling and involved attaching more than 3,000 aluminum “pe…
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