Design for Rethinking Resources

The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of our understanding of planetary resources and circularity, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. Bastian Beyer, Aurélie Mossé et al. contributed with the article »Towards a Bacterially-Induced Textile Architecture« and Daniel Suárez and Natalija Miodragović an article on »Plektonik— Active Yarns for Adaptive Loop-Based Material Systems«.

Towards a Bacterially-Induced Textile Architecture

Aurélie Mossé, Daniel Suárez Zamora & Bastian Beyer

Abstract
Bacteria are rarely considered as belonging to the architectural realm. Yet they are part of the built environment as they are part of our own bodies. In the emerging field of biodesigned architecture, bacteria are involved in the visual expression as well as the structural performance of buildings. In this visual essay, we reflect on the results of a curriculum-based workshop focused on the biocalcification of textiles, a rigidification process informed by the bacterially induced precipitation of calcite. Building on the pioneering work of architects Bastian Beyer and Daniel Suarez in this area, the results point at the rich textile vocabulary through which biocalcification can be expressed and the value of interdisciplinary collaborations sitting at the intersection of textile design, architecture and microbiology.

Plektonik—Active Yarns for Adaptive Loop-Based Material Systems

Daniel Suárez & Natalija Miodragović

Abstract
This research investigates contemporary textile techniques and plant-based »active« yarns to describe a new material system and fabricate lightweight structural prototypes. We define “active yarns” as bio-based structural yarns, filaments that store elastic energy, and flexible stems from short rotation cop-pice (SRC) plantation species. SRCs are woody fast-growing tree species often cultivated to produce high biomass yields in a short period. This research fo-cuses on Willow (Salix spp.), the most spread SRC in Europe. Due to their filament structure, SRC plantations produce rod-like flexible stems with finite lengths. To overcome length limitations, we industrially produced a cord-like yarn with bundled filaments and materials with different properties. Wood-bending techniques can shape these active yarns into warp-knit loops and later be assembled into larger structures. This lightweight construction method leverages sustainability thanks to the combination of a fast renewable source of material like SRCs with efficient use of raw material resources granted by the ability of knitting to produce the form with almost no waste. Moreover, this material assembly method of rigid loops allows for re-assembly. As a result, the material would recover energy as part of the biomass production chain.

The research is conducted with Textile Designer Nelli Singer, awarded for her wood-based textile research Living Beings, Master Thesis, weißensee kunsthoschschule berlin (Berlin 2020). Collaboration and mentoring Prof. Christiane Sauer, weißensee school of art and design berlin. The authors acknowledge the support of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy—EXC 2025—390648296. In addition, the authors want to thank the photo studio weißensee school of art and design berlin Dr. Michaela Eder, Max Planck Institute Potsdam—Golm and the support received at Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI) in Chemnitz.

Find out more here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-36554-6