Page 68 - AIT1016_E-Paper

SERIEN STUDENTENARBEIT • STUDENT WORK
Planungs- und Projektbeteiligte
Gruppenfoto unten (von links nach rechts)
Johanna Beuscher, Lena Aust, Katarina Gregurevic, Natalie Micheev, Jasmin Dittmann, Marie Vogel, Maria shows the possibilities of building with foamed textiles. Under the umbrella term of
Simlesa, Sascha Biehl, Marianna Cicala, Michelle Haas, Ciara Sotgia, Ismena Micorek
Die Module werden anschließend miteinander zusammengefügt. • Subsequently, the modules were assembled.
Experimentelles Loungemöbel für bis zu zwei Personen • Experimental lounge furniture for up to two persons.
068 • AIT 10.2016
I n the last summer semester, we as master students had the possibility to implement
a pavilion in lightweight construction with Professor Claudia Lüling in the scope of
the “Textile Construction” research initiative at the Frankfurt University. With a diame-
ter of approximately five metres and a height of three metres, the pavilion exemplary
“FabricFoam”, two materials we already knew from different contexts had to be com-
bined: spacer fabrics and foams. Spacer fabrics consist of two outer layers, which are
kept at a distance with so-called spacer yarns. So far, they have been applied in the
form of breathable mattresses or seat covers. Due to their three-dimensional quality
they can also open up a new field of application in the area of textile construction.
Together with foams, as they are used in the building industry, the combination of
fibrous and porous material portions results in a lightweight, potentially both tension-
and pressure-resistant and insulating composite material. Initially, we used a suitable
PU foam, but research is also done on sustainable alternatives such as the combinati-
on of glass fibres and glass foam or cellulose fibres and wood foam. The design semi-
nar had set itself the aim to analyse spacer fabrics by inserting self-hardening foams
as composite material for their constructive and architectural possibilities. During the
first half of the semester, 15 pavilion concepts made of FabricFoam were created and
we quickly learnt that the composite material we were not familiar with had other phy-
sical traits than classic textile membrane architecture.
Support structure principle and stability
More intensive than with conventional building materials, experimental tests on the
scale level of the material were necessary, had to be repeated on the design level and
carried out in a spatial context. Finally, three support structure principles evolved. In
groups and in detail, we worked on the principle of folding, of a shell structure and of
a dome, before the majority of the seminar group decided in favour of implementing
a modularised dome as a prototype on a 1:1 scale. During the following test and opti-
misation phase, numerous characteristic joining details were developed for the previo-
usly unknown composite material, always considering the production steps and con-
struction processes required for the subsequent implementation. The team finally cut
a 30-millimetre thick spacer fabric into pyramid-shaped modules with the help of tem-
plates, which were then folded, centrally sewn together and turned inside out. Similar
to a hat, the modules thus got additional stability. The single components were then
joined by filling defined hollow spaces between the modules with foam. Owing to their
conical shape, the modules of the pavilion adopted the shape of a real dome when
they were put up. The composite material is stable, heat-insulating, sound-absorbing
and translucent and creates a room which is soft, airy and translucent. Put on top of
a wooden base, the outcome is a room with sitting accommodations inviting to meet,
relax, linger, and party. The pavilion not only impresses with its gentle play of light in
the interior but also documents on a 1:1 scale what possibilities are open to textile
lightweight construction with FabricFoam. The Frankfurter Forschungsinstitut (FFin)
under the direction of Professor Claudia Lüling works on the objective of “Better than
a Tent”. While tents customarily consist of poles and tarpaulins and provide no clima-
tic comfort except for protection against rain and wind, studies with foamed spacer
fabrics promise possibilities for climatically adapted emergency shelters.
Experimental lounge furniture
In the next semester, we further developed the alternative support principles of folding
and the shell analysed in the pavilion project, and we constructed two experimental
pieces of lounge furniture, which show additional application possibilities of
FabricFoam. The first lounge furniture was similar to a cocoon implemented according
to the folding principle using a spacer fabric and foam. The second lounge furniture
examined the effectiveness of the composite material as a shell structure. The used
spacer fabric was preassembled for foaming. Foam channels in a diamond-shaped
arrangement form an arched gridshell, which spans a lounge seat for up to two people.
Following the principle of the inverted catenary curve, the textile was foamed while
hanging and turned over after the foam had set respectively the loading capacity of the
arch had been achieved. Put on top of an ergonomically shaped seat, the shell provi-
des the possibility to retreat into an acoustically insulated atmosphere and invites to
relax. The next aim of the student research group now is the development of load-
bearing and insulating lightweight construction elements for walls and roofs with
three-dimensional foamed fabrics, which can be used as temporary accommodation.