Intelligent fabric : responsive architecture

To cut, fold, wrap, crease, tie, tuck, knit, knot, bind, weave, stitch, attach, stretch, shrink, puncture, twist, curve, and bend.  The versatility of fabric is vast, the forms, textures and patterns created through its use are endless.  Through the many benefits of tensile architecture including inherent day lighting capabilities, increased insulative value and reduced material usage therefore reduced cost, along with flexibility in form, freedom in design and advances in fabric technologies it is not surprising that more and more architects are utilising architectural fabric membrane within their designs.

Though looking at some historical examples of the uses of fabric in structure, such as the obvious Teepee of the North American Indian, a simple light weight timber structure wrapped in a fabric skin, secured in tension with pegs; the use of Shitomi (latticed shuttered) and Undare (Rattan blinds) in the traditional buildings of Japan used to prevent heat coming into the building and to block sunlight while allowing air to pass through the structure with Shoji Screens used as a way of drawing light in and dispersing it throughout a room; the use of fabric in Poze cu Piazza Maggiore Bologna, Italy for idendity and solar shading and the simple forms of stretched fabric use in the market squares of Burgos Plaza Mayor, Spain, I will look for comparisons in the principles for using fabric in architecture today.

An early example of the contemporary use of fabric in structure is an air-supported pool enclosure built in 1957, Buffalo, NY, USA by Birdair.  Since then fabric has been used in a vast range of structures, including museums, shopping centres and sporting arenas.

The Milestones of Flight Museum for the Royal Air Force, Hendon designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects LLP is essentially a barrel vault with a continuous roof light at the apex which allows daylight to fall on to the back of the fabric panels which internally clad the stainless steel structure and also acts as an environmental filter preventing harmful UV light from damaging the exhibits.  FCB also utilise fabric structure in the construction of the National Cold War Exhibition Museum at RAF Cosford.  The two elevations of the short ends of the building are filled with translucent fabric panels on demountable steel frames to allow aircraft to be taken out or replaced, and also provide diffuse daylight for the full height of the cathedral-scale interior.

Although tensile architecture is often seen as a temporary, removable solution, the advances in fabric coating technologies (incuding Tensotherm™ with Lumira™ aerogel, PTFE Fiberglass, PTFE High Translucency, PTFE Acoustical Liner, TiO₂-Coated PTFE Fiberglass, Kenafine, PVC, and PVC Mesh) mean an architectural fabric membrane can have a life expectancy of over thirty years.

“Arch. Enzo Eusebi of Nothing Studio has designed a “fabric church” that is planned to be built in the city of L’Acquila, Italy, by the end of 2010.  The Church of the Resurrection will be built in memory of the 307 victims of the earthquake that devastated the principal city of the region of Abruzzo in April 2009.  The project’s skin will be made of a translucent fiberglass membrane. The design is inspired – according to the architects – by the emergency facilities, and seeks to implement the concept of “Zero Impact” by using so-called low-tech construction methods.  The construction consists of a laminated wood structure and a triple-layered membrane that allows adequate thermal isolation while allowing the passage of filtered natural light.” (http://151.1.148.132/nothing/progetto_ing.asp?id=420)

Innovative design strategies such as organic solar, where nanotechnology is used to deposit or “print” a photo-active material to convert solar energy into electricity, opens up even more possibilities in terms of sustainable design through fabric. This “active” layer is extremely thin — only a few tenths of a micrometer thick, i.e. less than 1/1000 of a silicon cell, so potentially extremely cost effective. (http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/0509_f1_photovoltaics.html)

 Other advances include a fabric wall, activated by a thermally-sensitive bi-metal system, which responds directly to heat conditions within the double-glazed window to open or close the fabric and automatically regulating the temperature of the internal space.

“This interactive shading system—designed originally by recent architecture graduate Brent Vander Werf for the University of Arizona’s entry into the 2010 Solar Decathlon House competition—utilizes a bi-metal element in combination with shade fabric to create a self-regulating system that requires virtually no maintenance. Vander Werf’s “Compliant Shading Enclosure” [patent pending] creates a movable mechanism set within the air gap between the double glazing of a wall in the UA’s solar house. Powered by the energy of the sun, the mechanism expands or closes in response to heat levels in the airspace to make the fabric opening the correct size to meet the desired comfort level.” (http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/1110_f1b_responsive_shading.html)