RUM: De fiberforstærkede polymere kompositter i arkitektonisk kontekst

Translated title of the contribution: SPACE: Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) in an Architectural Context

Publications: Book / Anthology / Thesis / ReportPh.D. thesis

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Abstract

This industrial Ph.D. thesis, ‘SPACE - Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) in an Architectural Context’, explores FRP´s integration into architecture, focusing on the material composition of the composite and its two components: the fibre thread (reinforcement) and the matrix (mass). The aim is to explore new ways of composing, devising and configuring fibre geometries through textile and technology-based principles. This is realised through a translucent material logic, informing connections, architectural elements and space. The Ph.D. project has been developed in collaboration with ‘KHR Architecture’ (Practice), ‘Fiberline’ (Industry) and ‘KADK-IBT - The Institute of Architecture and Technology (Research).

Since the 1960s, FRPs integration into architecture has been developed through continual optimisation of material strength, stiffness and lightness. Until now, very little work has been done exploring the aesthetics arising from the FRP compositions that go beyond the structural logic. This project reveals tectonic opportunities emerging from the translucent properties of FRP that combined with the fibre geometries generate ambiguous boundary phenomena and new opportunities for architectural and spatial interpretations.

The project’s explorations focus on creating choreographed scenography of architectural space, body and movement through the play of fibres in different densities creating textile tectonics. By analysing FRP´s inherent possibilities, the examination reveals relations between part and whole at various scales, activated by material, element, space, building and connections. Beginning with thread, textile, texture and translucency the project experiments with the combination of fibre direction, matrix and the transformative process between fluid and solid. The project methodology utilises ‘Research-By-Design’, capitalising on the interaction between research and practice, moving between scientific, artistic and architectural approaches. Investigations about the structural and aesthetic logic are carried out and by decoding these as well as the physical relationships between them, the project activates a new sensual dimension to FRP. Four different trajectories are investigated: (material) experiment, prototype, demonstrator and (building) realisation. Drawing inspiration from textile crafts, the possibilities arising from modern digital tools and with an understanding of the production constraints, the aesthetic opportunities are explored enabling the fibre thread to be organised through design, grid and modelling before being fixed by the matrix. These visual examinations illustrate FRP`s materiality through light, shadow and movement as adynamic and optical effects. --- The main hypothesis is that by manipulating the structural and aesthetic logic through the textile and the translucency of FRP new material, element and spatial opportunities can arise. In that context the main contribution to knowledge of this investigation is that novel approaches to FRP in architecture lead to new material logics with methodologies that by connecting thread, fluid and solid become a generator of new architectural tectonics. The formalisation of intuitive material examinations can lead to scalable scenography. Through this work, this is experienced at 1:1 in three contexts: at the laboratory, exhibition space and on the building site. The obtained results bring theory and practice together and seek to find how the standard and the specific, the concrete and the abstract converge.

By viewing architecture as a material logic, created through textile, flexible and fluid FRP materiality, this thesis proposes opportunities for creating alternative architectural compositions. Moving between tradition and renewal, experiment, 1:1 explorations, structure and enclosure, the thesis introduces translucent ‘Fibre Formations’, a ‘Fibre Installation’ and a ‘Fibre Building’. Furthermore, it explores the sphere between the measurable and intuitive, composing a spatial and ambiguous activation of foreground, middle ground and background. This project is a staging of material, context and the body, that overrides the material condition, and thereby establishes stenographic situations as metaphors for new interpretations and sensations, in order to create.
Translated title of the contributionSPACE: Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) in an Architectural Context
Original languageDanish
Place of PublicationKøbenhavn
Number of pages674
Publication statusPublished - 2020

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