Bioinspired Architectural and Architected Materials
Special Issue Edited by Cluster Members K. Razghandi, C. Sauer and P. Fratzl Out Now
Multiscale architectures. Left: the wooden tower of Lake Mjøsa, Norway Reproduced with permission from [1]. Copyright: Voll Arkitekter AS & Ricardo Foto. Right: the internal structure of wood based on parallel tube-like wood cells with diameters in the range of tens of microns (shown for several wood species from top to bottom). The white arrow points to a sketch where nanometer-thick cellulose fibrils are indicated by black lines [2] John Wiley & Sons. Copyright: 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
Architecture stands as a paradigm for the development of structural entities, which define functionality from the nanoscale to entire buildings. However, the distinction between structure and material becomes totally blurred in biological systems where it is impossible to distinguish between material and device or organ. A tree stem, as a prototypical example, is both material and plant organ with specific biological functions. Partially inspired by this, there are recent parallel movements—in materials development as well as in architectural design—towards the merging of materiality, structure and function into one integral construction system.
The concept is illustrated in the figure that shows the currently tallest wooden building with its architecture, together with the internal architecture of wood-based on micrometric wood cells and nanometric cellulose fibrils. This spans dimensions from the diameter of the cellulose fibrils of less than 3 nm to the height of the building of the order of 85 m (that is about 30 billion times larger). Many architectural levels carry the mechanical stability of the cellulose up to the building dimensions.
Read the full article here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/ac6646
