Wood-Textile Composites for Self-shaping Material Assemblies in Architectural Scale

Self-shaping materials can be designed for material efficiency, programmable behavior and bespoke performance and enable designers to produce climate sensitive architectures that react in real time to environmental dynamics. However, their implementation in building elements remains challenging in relation with the scale, structural rigidity, and time-dependent responsive behavior of the self-shaping material assemblies. The study presents new methods to understand, develop and test novel wood-textile composites for environmentally responsive self-shaping material assemblies in architectural scale. Equally concerned with material, environmental, and computational studies, the aim of the research is to contribute with knowledge on designing environmental responsive envelope structures that can potentially contribute to reduced operational energy use in buildings. The research includes an experimental case study on inlayed textiles using wood bilayers and provides a systematic comparative review of the dynamic thermal responsive and structural performance of the assembly, in relation to dynamic daylight regulation. By mapping wood and textile properties as well as their synergetic capacities for form change, we investigate the ability to design increasingly larger and physically stronger responsive material systems.