London-based architect and designer Bastian Beyer's project explores the potential of using knitted textile structures that have been biologically solidified as sustainable construction materials.
Beyer worked with fellow designer Daniel Suarez to apply traditional knitting techniques to unusual fabrics before solidifying them using biological processes, to determine the structural potential of composite materials.
Beyer used a customised circular hand-loom to create a 160 centimetre-tall textile column
The designers hope that the resulting material could have a use in architectural design and construction, as spatial dividers, shading features, reinforcement and potentially structural roof or wall systems.
The experiment saw a handcrafted, soft textile column gradually transformed into a rigid structure by using an active textile microbiome (a collection of micro-organisms) of a bacteria called sporosarcina pasteurii to form a calcite layer on the fibre of the knitted structure. Beyer experimented with knitting patterns varying the density, materials and structure
Beyer, who also works as a researcher at London's Royal College of Art, used a customised circular hand-loom to create a 160 centimetre-tall textile column from jute fibre and permeable polyester ? both environmentally friendly, sustainable resources.
The column is composed of four distinct knitting patterns that were positioned according to the expected compressive loads throughout the structure.
Beyer exp...