Digital Architecture

 How nature builds: hierarchy and interfaces

 

Scanning electron micrograph of cancellous (spongy) bone tissue

There are seven key distinctions to guide biomimetic
thinking, summarized below:

Structure and materials are indistinguishable in nature, which is a radically different way of thinking to grasp in an architectural context, where these concerns are more easily separated, and where traditional manufacturing techniques and drawing packages both reinforce this separation.

Nature organises structure and materials together through hierarchy.

Perhaps a good way to begin exploring hierarchy is to visualise a range of bridge designs. One means of spanning a modest distance would be to use two solid steel beams that sit on piers at either end.

This would represent a monolithic approach with no hierarchy. A more efficient way to span the distance would be to use a pair of steel trusses instead. That represents one level of hierarchy. Supposing we went one step further so that each compression member in the truss became a small box truss and each tension member became a cable made from stranded steel.

That would represent two levels of hierarchy. With increasing levels of hierarchy, the structure becomes more efficient in terms of the amount of material used to achieve a given objective.

Diagram showing how, with levels of hierarchy, an element of structure can be further refined to use as little as 2 per cent of the material of a solid section (after work by Adriaan Beukers and Ed van Hinte in Lightness: The Inevitable Renaissance of Minimum Energy Structures, with input from Fluid Structures)

Trusses within trusses within trusses on the Eiffel Tower – showing three levels of hierarchy

The Eiffel Tower demonstrates three levels of hierarchy, but the majority of human engineering uses only one level.

 In biology, it is not uncommon to find six levels of hierarchy and proportionately higher performance because the structure benefits from bonds at every level from atoms to molecules to cells to organisms and upwards.

 

The bridge example shows the material decreasing in quantity and changing form at the same time (solid steel sections become steel cable). At this point some readers may be feeling confused about the difference between structures and materials and that is quite justifiable because in biology there really is no distinction between the two.

The way that nature makes things from the bottom up, molecule by molecule, means that what we might think of as a biological material is also a structure. Wood, for instance, is a microstructure of lignified cell walls, and bone is a hierarchical structure of calcium phosphate and collagen molecules in fibrous, laminar, particulate and porous form.

Scanning electron micrograph showing the microstructure of oak (Quercus robar)

Scanning electron micrograph of cancellous (spongy) bone tissue

Hierarchical structures also deliver benefits in stiffness and fracture control and this is achieved through interfaces between, and within, each level of hierarchy.

The abalone shell is made from platelets of aragonite (a form of calcium carbonate) bonded together with a flexible polymer mortar.
The polymer forms the interface and, as is typical in biology, the material used at these points is weaker than the surrounding material.

Materials scientist J. E. Gordon explains: ‘this is not because Nature is too incompetent to glue them together properly but because, properly contrived, the weak interfaces strengthen the material and make it tough’. Toughness, in engineering terms, means resistance to fracture.

Although 95 per cent of an abalone shell is made from the same raw material as chalk, it achieves 3,000 times the toughness through its hierarchical structure and interfaces. Artificial nacre is already being constructed, with research aiming to create ceramic materials and composites with far greater strength than has conventionally been possible.

Currently, these experiments are at relatively small scale (by architects’ standards, that is – an abalone would take the opposite view) but could lead to substantial increases in spanning capabilities of Guastavino vaulting and related forms of construction.

 

 

Book reference:

Biomimicry in Architecture by Pawlyn, Michael
https://amzn.to/3GgvxGy

 Environmentally influenced self-assembly 

Bio-molecular self-assembly by Skylar Tibbits – exploring the potential for individual elements to self-organise into structures

Nature offers another arena to inspire current buildinpractices: epigenesis.

Epigenesis is the process by whicgrowth is significantly influenced by the environment; it is an additional determinant of growth to genetics.

A straightforward example would be the way that trees grow partly in response to the forces that act on them. A branch joining the trunk is subjected to stress in windy conditions and will grow thicker in the affected areas in response.

Because buildings generally do not yet grow in any sense that is truly comparable to biology, there are verfew existing examples of epigenesis in architecture. On that comes close is the proposal for the Biorock Pavilioby Exploration, based on the technology pioneered by marine biologist Thomas J. Goreau and engineer/ architect Wolf Hilbertz.

This uses electro-deposition in seawater to form accretive mineral structures. An electrical current, low enough to be safe for marine lifeis passed through a steel frame submerged in seawaterresulting in dissolved minerals being deposited on thestructure.

To date, the technology has only been used to restore coral reefs by growing mineral structures onwhich corals can become established and flourish. The Biorock Pavilion is intended to be a smalauditorium that will be grown in seawater and then floated to the surface and transported to an urban location, where it will be a venue for small-scale performances.

Design team member Professor Julian Vincent suggested using strain gauges to determine the amount of current supplied to each member, making the growth process epigenetic. Since the rate of accretion is partly determined by the current, the members that were subjected to greater strain would be the ones that would grow more in response.

The rate of accretion can be as high as 50 mm per year anddepending on the speed of deposition, the compressivstrength can exceed that of reinforced concrete. The minerals continue to be deposited for as long as the current passes through the frame and damaged areas will repair themselves.

Offshore wind turbines could use small amounts of surplus electricity to reinforce their foundations with Biorock, or build reefs that help to restore marine ecosystems.

 

The Biorock Pavilion, which is to be grown in seawater in a way that is comparable to epigenesis

The work of the MIT Self-Assembly Lab has explored ways in which elements can be ‘programmed’ to selfassemble into predetermined forms or self-adapt to particular conditions, often through passive forms of energy, such as ambient heat, vibration or magnetic fields.

They define self-assembly as ‘a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through only local interaction’.

The founder of the Lab, Skylar Tibbits, has proposed that one of the most useful applications of this approach would be for construction in extreme environments where it may not be safe or feasible for humans to go.

 

Book reference:

Biomimicry in Architecture by Pawlyn, Michael 

 

Shi_Ling_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_Yunnan_model_2

The Shadow Pavilion by PLY Architecture showing how a thin planar surface can be rolled into an element that generates a distinctive building form

 

 

The leaf roller caterpillar manipulates flat leaves into tubular forms by attaching threads across the surface and then shortening the threads in a manner similar to a ratchet strap

 

Transformations of planar surfaces

 

Shadow Pavilion Plan

Shadow Pavilion section and elevation

Plants have had to evolve ways to present large amounts of photosynthetic surface to absorb light. But a larger surface area needs more structuring, since growing bigger leaves by increasing their thickness has significant drawbacks.

Curves and folds have evolved to create stiffer elements out of thin material.

In the case of the Southern Magnolia, the fold occurs along the midrib and each half of the leaf is curved . Both the fold and the curve contribute to the leaf ’s stiffness. In rain forest environments, daylight at forest-floor level is scarce and many plants have responded with large leaves folded into fan forms .

 

The Southern Magnolia leaf, stiffened through a combination of a curve and a fold

Fan palm leaves – an elegant example of how folds can transform a large, thin surface into a structure that can cantilever from a single point of support

 

 Architects Tonkin Liu, working with structural engineer Ed Clark at Arup, were inspired by the forms of marine molluscs and techniques from tailoring to develop a new form of construction derived from planar surfaces. They refer to this as a ‘shell-lace structure’ .

Just as in the molluscs, the structure derives its stiffness from the articulation of a thin surface: folds increase the effective structural depth, curves create added stiffness and twists provide a degree of triangulation.
 The end product is an extremely elegant structure, constructed with a minimum of materials, deriving its strength from its shape rather than its mass.

 

Diagrams by Tonkin Liu Architects showing how structural principles from shells were analysed

 

The Shi Ling Bridge designed by Tonkin Liu Architects and structural engineer Ed Clark of Arup – an example of a ‘shell-lace structure’ that achieves efficiency of materials by exploiting vaulted, folded and twisted forms from shells

"Shell Lace Structure is a technique inspired by nature. Seashells gain strength from optimised curvilinear geometry, locking in stiffness with corrugation. Lightness is achieved through perforation, creating highly-efficient and responsive structures with minimum weight and wastage. The technique has been developed through research and experiment with digital modelling, digital analysis, and digital fabrication tools. The design process is intuitive, analytical and iterative. Three-dimensional geometries are built up virtually from conjoined developable surfaces. These surfaces are unzipped at the seams, unrolled and nested allowing efficient computer aided cutting from a flat sheet material. The cut profiles are reassembled to create the final three-dimensional form."
- https://tonkinliu.co.uk/shi-ling-bridge

Resources and further reading:
https://tonkinliu.co.uk/shi-ling-bridge

Book reference:
Biomimicry in Architecture by Pawlyn, Michael

Get the Book on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3I8RHw0

MX3D Bridge By Joris Larman

 

Nature makes extremely economical use of materials, often achieved through evolved ingenuity of form. Using folding, vaulting, ribs, inflation and other means, natural organisms have created effective forms that demonstrate astonishing efficiency. The many manifestations of this in natural organisms provide a rich source book of ideas for structures that could be radically more efficient than those found in conventional architecture. 

 

 Hollow tubes Nature builds simply and economically, often meeting both goals simultaneously by making hollow tubes. Nature is abundant in examples that demonstrate this structural principle, such as human bones, plant stems and feather quills.

If one takes a square cross-section of solid material with a side dimension 24 mm, it will have the same bending resistance as a circular solid section of diameter 25 mm with only 81.7 per cent of the material.

Similarly, a hollow tube with only 20 per cent of the material of the solid square can achieve the same stiffness. In engineering terms, material has been removed from areas close to the neutral axis and placed where it can deliver much greater resistance to bending – achieving the same result but with a fraction of the material. 

Sketch showing how four equally stiff structural elements can be made with varying degrees of efficiency. By using shape and putting the material where it needs to be, it is possible to use only 14 per cent of the material of a solid square section (after work by Adriaan Beukers and Ed van Hinte in Lightness: The Inevitable Renaissance of Minimum Energy Structures)

One plant in particular shows how hollow tubes can be applied at larger scales in nature. Bamboo species can reach 40 m in height.

How do they maintain strength over this length?
 One of the ways in which a tubular element can fail under loading is through one side of the tube collapsing in towards the central axis, leading to overall buckling. Bamboo solves this by interrupting smooth tubular growth with regular nodes, which act like bulkheads .

The nodes provide great resistance to structural failure, and are part of what has facilitated bamboo’s lofty accomplishments.
Bamboo is, by strict taxonomy, actually a species of grass which has achieved such wild success that it resembles the scale of a tree. This plant’s solution seems to apply so widely that it begs the question: why aren’t more trees hollow tubes? The answer derives from the different forms that they strive to grow into: trees generally create a canopy of cantilevering branches, rather than the multiplicity of stems characteristic of grasses.

Bamboo offers solutions to tubular structural elements, while trees offer a biomimic further solutions to holistic structural issues, since they face different pressures than grasses.

 

 

 

 Trees: solid forms

 

 

Trees growing in the shallow soils of rain forests have evolved buttress roots that resist overturning

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Jisuk Lee (Rahim Research Studio, University of Pennsylvania), Mixed-Use Complex, Moscow, 2008

 

Jisuk Lee (Rahim Research Studio, University of Pennsylvania), Mixed-Use Complex, Moscow, 2008

 

 Digital Virtuosity

 

The celebration of exuberance defines an architecture that begins where common sense ends. With the ambition to establish conditions beyond the usual, the known, the rational, the obvious and the simple.

 In the current global situation, the biggest danger lies in giving up creativity for inventiveness.

It could be argued that architecture is not good at inventing things; engineering, philosophy and politics of course do it better. But it is unbeaten in its ability to create, rediscover and reinvent itself, the environment and the human spirit.

In fact, the issue debates a plethora of intelligent ways in which experimental architecture manages to cope with the contemporary turmoil in global politics, economics and ecology. Here occurs the wonder: ‘stuff’ we are mostly familiar with is stretched to its absolute extent.

Common sense becomes the experiment;
beauty becomes the sublime,
the grotesque, the blissful;
the digital becomes the experiential;
the anecdotal, the non-techy and non-geeky.

 Bring forth the new virtuosos (although curiously some of them happen to be the old masters, and some others still students). In ‘Interiorities’ , Ali Rahim confesses the purpose to generate architecture as rich in its ‘level of designed luxury’, ‘coherence and precision of formal organisation’ as the best-known precedents; yes even ‘the most filigree Gothic spaces or the most exuberant Baroque or Rococo interiors’.

In ‘Surrealistic Exuberance – Dark Matters’, Neil Spiller explores the exuberant dark eroticism and its poetic potential of Baroque and religious imagery, and exploits them in the narratives and design of his Communicating Vessels project.

 In ‘Cultivating Smartcities’ , CJ Lim calls out for ‘a new formal, textural and experiential exuberance’ of urbanity with nature – a sensibly exuberant approach to deal with the exorbitant demand for food, and space, in the Far East. While in ‘Relying on Interdependencies’, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Robert Greenwood mandate architects to ‘act within the spirit of cooperation and dialogue, alongside contemporary values without compromising longterm qualities or architectural integrity’.

The King Abdulaziz Center for Culture and Knowledge is a showcase project for how environmentally complex scenarios like the Middle Eastern desert can be engaged with by imaginative solutions far beyond common sense.

King Abd Al Aziz Center for Culture and Knowledge

In ‘Baroque Exuberance: Frivolity or Disquiet?’, Robert Harbison introduces us to some of the many ‘facile games’, or ‘profound exposures’, that the Baroque spirit staged.

The Baroque wish to defy gravity echoes also in Wolf D Prix’s article ‘Let’s Rock over Barock’, which highlights a cultural phenomenon of Austrian ‘space inventors’: the ‘desire to celebrate space’. 

  

 

In ‘Exuberance, I Don’t Know; Excess, I Like’ , Hernan Diaz Alonso links exuberance to emergent qualities and to the notion of affect, yet at the same time rejects it for excessiveness and arousement; aspects of greater intensities in his work.

Also more towards the extreme than the exuberant tends Tom Wiscombe’s ‘Extreme Integration’ , its performance depending on ‘messiness, excess and jungle thinking’.

 In ‘Diving into the Depth-Scape: Exuberance and Personalities’ , Yael Reisner states that it is ‘personality, character and poetics’ that ‘take part in exuberant expression’.

The article is a clear invocation for emotion and intuition, evocatively illustrated by her Depth-Scape Interactive Time-cycled Light & Acoustic installation project.
Personality does certainly come across in fashion design, where couturiers are more often than not eccentrics. In ‘Exuberant Couture’, Judith Clarke, reveals that in fashion ‘exuberance, in order to stay exuberant, is always seeking new forms’, as it is ‘by defi nition performative’.

 For decades Peter Cook has lectured on cheerfulness in architecture, and his oeuvre will leave an astonishing legacy of exuberant, flamboyant, clever projects. Out of his ‘creative tank’, New Delfina, purposely designed for this issue, did ‘burst forth’ . 

 

https://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classics-the-plug-in-city-peter-cook-archigram/51d71b74e8e44ed538000023-ad-classics-the-plug-in-city-peter-cook-archigram-image

Yousef Al-Mehdari (Unit 20, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), The New Polyhydric Body, 2008–09 below: The New Polyhydric Body study attempts to reinterpret the complexity of overlapping anatomies through repeated and non-scripted digital computations (such as extrusions, rotations and progressive scaling) in order to generate new types of architectural form. ‘Polyhydra’ is a generative term deriving from poly (literally, multi), and Hydra (the many-headed serpent).

Tobias Klein (Unit 20, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), Synthetic Syncretism/Our Lady of Regla Chapel, Havana, 2005–06 opposite: The narrative background is based upon the hybrid Cuban Santeria religion – a mixture of Catholicism and saints, and African Yoruba tribe beliefs and animal sacrifi ces. Due to lack of burial space in Havana, a ceremonial processional funerary route through the city is proposed. Slotted inside an existing cross-shaped courtyard, the inverted chapel acts as an architectural highlight. Its formal and structural expression is provided by a series of designed Santerian relics held inside the sacristy – skeletal and visceral utensils, 3-D modelled and 3-D printed in order to perfectly fit 3-D-scanned animal bones.

Graham Thompson (Unit 20, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), Synthetic Sustainability – Bio-Farm, Turin, Italy, 2008–09 right and bottom: The biotech centre proposal includes a biofuel production facility to explore new ways of breeding strains of algae to produce a sustainable biofuel that can be employed in the depleting fossil-fuel market. Left: Detail of nutrient intent soft system. Pliant adaptive parts are responsive and evolve – specifi c mechanisms help maintain the health of the living capillaries and their internal growth status. Right: Detail of bio-robotic machine consisting of multifunctional and rotational amateurs. These artifi cially intelligent machines are programmed to maintain and increase lush synthetic growth within an architectural bioscaffold.

Book Reference:

Exuberance New Virtuosity in Contemporary Architecture (Architectural Design March   April 2010, Vol. 80 No. 2) by Marjan Colletti.

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 Cellular biological materials have intricate interior structures, self-organised in hierarchies to
produce modularity, redundancy and differentiation. As Michael Weinstock explains, the
foam geometries of cellular materials offer open and ductile structural systems that are
strong and permeable, making them an attractive paradigm for developments in material
science and for new structural systems in architecture and engineering.

 

Scanning electron micrograph of cancellous (spongy) bone tissue. Bone can be either cortical (compact solid) or cancellous, with cortical usually forming the exterior of the bone and cancellous tissue forming the interior. The

In recent years, new strategies for design and new techniques for making materials and large constructions have emerged, based on biological models of the processes by which natural material forms are produced.

Biological organisms have evolved multiple variations of form that should not be thought of as separate from their structure and materials.

The Construction of Materials

In the industrial world, polymer cellular foams are widely used for insulation and packaging, but the high structural efficiency of cellular materials in other, stiffer materials has only recently begun to be explored.

Comparatively few engineers and architects are familiar with the engineering design of cellular materials, and this has contributed to the slow development of cellular structures in architecture. 

Industrial and economic techniques do exist for producing foams in metals, ceramics and glass.

 

New research into the molecular assembly of structures and materials in what were previously thought to be homogenous natural materials has led to ‘biomimetic’ manufacturing techniques for producing synthetic materials, and new composite materials are being ‘grown’ that have increasingly complex internal structures based on biological models.

The fabrication of composites relies on controlling structure internal to the material itself, at molecular levels.
Here, processing is the controlling parameter and growth is more than a metaphor.

 ‘Grown’ materials are layered, molecule by molecule, to create distinctive micro-structures in thin films, making new combinations of metal and ceramic that are produced by design rather than ‘nature’. New composites such as flaw-tolerant ceramics and directionally solidified metals might seem to be a long way from the materials available to architects, but they are already in use in many other fields.

 

 

Sponge spicule Scanning electron micrograph of the endoskeletal component of a sponge made of calcium carbonate. When assembled, the skeleton forms either a mesh or honeycomb structure. Magnification x 210 when printed at 10 centimetres wide.

 

Thomas Von Girsewald and Juan Subercaseaux, centroidal Voronoi tessellation and boundary optimization in close-packing systems, Emergent Technologies and Design programme, AA Graduate School of Architecture, 2005

Kevlar

Kevlar is perhaps the best-known manufactured organic fiber and, because of its unique combination of material properties, it is now widely used in many industrial applications. It has high tensile strength (five times that of steel), low weight and excellent dimensional stability, and so has been adopted for lightweight cables and ropes in many marine and naval applications.

 Kevlar has high impact resistance, so it is the major fiber constituent in composite panels in military and civil aircraft, and in sporting equipment such as canoes, skis, racquets and helmets.

However, it has yet to be used widely in architectural construction. 

 

 Liquid Crystals

Watercube digital structural model. The mathematics of foam geometries are used to produce the structural array, ensuring a rational optimised and buildable structural geometry.

 Injecting a stream of gas bubbles into liquid metals is the basic technique for producing foamed metals, but preventing the bubbles from collapsing is difficult.

Adding a small quantity of insoluble particles to slow the flow of the liquid metal stabilises the bubbles in the production of aluminium foam sheets, produced with open or closed cells on the surface. Aluminium foams can be cast in complex 3D forms, are stronger and more rigid than polymer foams, can tolerate relatively high temperatures, and are recyclable and stable over time.

They are very light, nominally about 10 per cent of the density of the metal, and are currently used as a structural reinforcement material, particularly in aerospace applications, though they have not yet reached their full potential in lightweight architectural structures.

 Closed-cell aluminium honeycomb is widely used as the core material of panel structures, conventionally with other materials as a surface. This is no longer strictly necessary, as new advanced processes produce ‘self-finished’ surfaces of high quality.

Cellular metals including, but not exclusively, aluminium, are being deployed for applications such as acoustic absorption, vibration damping and innovative thermal regulation. As the frequency and range of applications increases, data accumulates for the relationship between the topology of cells in the foam and the subsequent performance of the cellular material, so that improved and optimised cell topologies can be produced.

Another new open-cell foamed material, made of a glass-like carbon combining properties of glass and industrial carbons, can be used for biological ‘scaffolding’. Reticulated vitreous carbon has a large surface area combined with a very high percentage of void spaces, is sufficiently rigid to be selfsupporting, and is biologically and chemically inert. Cellular glass structures are used in medical applications for bone regeneration.

The bioactive glass acts as a scaffold to guide the growth and differentiation of new cells, and this requires an open-cell structure that is highly interconnected at the nanometre scale. The cells must be large enough to allow the bone tissue to grow between the cells, yet fine enough so that the ‘bioglass’ material can be absorbed into the bone as it is replaced by living tissue.

 

Watercube Resin Model

Watercube Digital Model

Material Constructions Design and construction strategies based on space-filling polyhedra and foam geometries offer open structural systems that are robust and ductile.

Control of the cell size, the distribution and differentiation of sizes within the global structure and the degree and number of connections are variables that can be explored to produce strength and permeability.

SMO Architektur and Arup designed the Bubble Highrise by packing a notional structural volume with bubbles of various sizes, then used the intersection of the bubbles and the exterior planes of the notional volume to generate a structure that gives entirely column-free interior spaces.

The ‘Watercube’ National Swimming Centre, Beijing, to be finished in 2007, was designed by PTW Architects and Arup using a structural design developed from Weaire and Phelan’s soap bubbles arrays. Despite the appearance of randomness, the elements of the structure are highly rational and so economically buildable.

The Watercube is an enormous building, 177 metres (581 feet) on each side and more than 30 metres (98 feet) high.

 The network of steel tubular members is clad with translucent ETFE pillows. Over such a wide span of column-free space, the need to minimise the self-weight of the structure is paramount, as most of the structural work involves ensuring the roof can hold itself up. The steel tubes are welded to round steel nodes that vary according to the loads placed upon them.

There is a substantial variation in size, with a total of around 22,000 steel members and 12,000 nodes. There is a total of 4000 ‘bubbles’ in the Watercube, the roof being made of only 7 variant types (of bubbles) and the walls of only 16 variations, which are repeated throughout.

The geometry was developed by extensive scripting, using the Weaire and Phelan mathematics, with a further script required for a final analytical and geometrical correct 3D model. Scripts that run in minutes can deal with the tens of thousands of nodes and beam elements, and scripting was also used to develop structural analysis models and models from which drawings were automatically generated.

The ETFE cushions make the building very energy efficient, and sufficient solar energy is trapped within to heat the pools and the interior area, with daylight maximised throughout the interior spaces.

 

 

 

Book Reference:

Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design (Architectural Design March April 2006 Vol. 76 No. 2) by Michael Hensel, Achim Menges, Michael Weinstock

Link on Amazon :
https://amzn.to/3pbnKmj

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marcosandmarjan_Algae-Cellunoi-Algae-growth-simulation-3

Project name: Algae-Cellunoi. Installation for the 9th ARCHILAB. Naturalizing Architecture exhibition, FRAC Centre. Orleans France.

 

Project Details

 

The installation is an ornamental wall structure for external use composed of numerous cellular components that work as a scaffold for algae to grow.

The patterns have multiple patterns with gaps and crevices that aim for a gradual involvement of nature in its three-dimensional surface.

The wall is made out of foam which is a quintessential insulation material. What is usually hidden in external walls is here turned inside out and exposed as an ornate thick surface.

The overall organization of cellular components is the result of a computational Voronoi pattern that determined the size and complexity of each cell.

 

 

marcosandmarjan_Algae-Cellunoi-side-view

 

 The result is a sequence of lofted surfaces that follow a gradient of punctuated lines and indentations that vary according to the geometric inclination of each surface – similar to growth layouts in sea barnacles and shells.

The fabrication process is based on two three stages:
1)The milling of each cellular component floating over a milled back wall;
2) 3D objet printing of each flask filled with grown medium and green algae;
3) spraying of grow medium and algae in computationally determined areas of each cell (due to time/technical constraints, this stage has not been carried out for the installation at ARCHILAB).

 

marcosandmarjan_Algae-Cellunoi-side-zoom-1

 

 

Design Team
marcosandmarjan with Guan Lee and Richard Beckett

Client
FRAC

Fabrication
Grymsdyke Farm; DMC London

Algae Technology
Marin Sawa with Nixon Group and Hellgardt Group (Imperial College); Richard Beckett (UCL)

Collaboration
Olivia Pearson: Emu Masuyama; Jessie Lee; Keith McDonald; Jonas Brazys; Cullum Perry

Sponsors
Bartlett School of Architecture; Grymsdyke Farm; Innsbruck University   

Website Reference:
http://mam-arch.com/celluoni.html