Transmaterial » finishes

Laser-Sintered Textiles

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:00:51 +0000

Laser-Sintered Textiles, based on a concept by designer Jiri Evenhuis, have opened a new frontier of possibilities for the production of future textiles. Instead of creating textiles by the meter, then cutting and sewing them together into final products, Laser-Sintered Textiles could one day make needle and thread obsolete.

After several years of research in software, materials, and surface quality, Freedom of Creation (FOC) launched its first commercial products for the public in 2005. Since there were no machines made specifically for manufacturing interlocking textile patterns by layers, FOC employed rapidmanufacturing techniques such as laser sintering for their manufacture. FOC’s textile products don’t require any assembly and products may be made inside their own packaging.

Contact: Feedom of Creation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Liminal Air

Blaine Brownell — Sat, 08 May 2010 14:00:10 +0000

Inspired by a cave visited at the foot of Mount Fuji, Shinji Ohmaki constructed an installation designed to render visible the air we cannot see and the sounds we cannot hear. Liminal Air is composed of 123,000 nylon strings suspended in varying lengths in such a way that they collectively create a kind of cloud-like, inverted topography. Viewable from both the interior and exterior, Liminal Air is intended to convey to visitors the feeling of plunging into a wave of light.

Contact: Tokyo Gallery＋BTAP, Tokyo, Japan.
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BAMbOO

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:00:07 +0000

BAMbOO panels are made by casting bamboo sections in translucent resins. The diagonally-cut bamboo sections may be open or filled with a different color resin for a dramatic spatial effect. By changing the amount, size, or direction of bamboo ovals, the acoustic performance of the panels changes as well as their look and feel. The simple production technique allows the panels to be customized easily based on aesthetic and functional requirements.

Designers Yvonne Laurysen and Erik Mantel developed BAMbOO for the project ‘Design Interventions for Stimulating Bamboo Commercialization’ by Pablo van der Lught.

Contact: LAMA Concept, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Based Upon Surfaces

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:00:22 +0000

Based Upon has developed a series of multi-layered textured surfaces in metals, resins, and lacquers that are available to be specified as surface finishes within architectural and interiors projects. Taking inspiration from elements as diverse as stingray skin, laburnum leaves, or the fine lines within a human hand, Based Upon has conjured a rich and varied collection of surface features using construction-ready materials.

Based Upon Surfaces may be hung like wall paintings, although they are often used to create detailed feature walls or monolithic furniture pieces. The surfaces also make visually-stimulating ceilings or hardwearing metal floors that subtly evolve over time.

Working the metal from a liquid to a solid state, Based Upon plays with the changing state of the material, and experiments with the way the liquid metal dries, drips or settles upon a surface. The finishing process is careful, considered, and intricate. Sanding and polishing excavates the metal from beneath the earth-like surface that forms, allowing the application of traditional metal techniques.

Contact: Based Upon, London, UK.
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Delight Cloth

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:00:14 +0000

Delight Cloth is a light-emitting textile comprised of thousands of fiber optic strands. With a diameter of only 0.25 to 0.5 mm, the optical fibers are woven into a large translucent tapestry that can be hung vertically or horizontally. The material may be used for wall or ceiling treatments, as well as banner signage or clothing. Delight Cloth can be fabricated with imbedded graphics or logos, and may be used to emit a wide variety of colors of light.

Japan-based Tsuya textile Co., Ltd. developed “The cloth fiber cross which glittered” in cooperation with Fukui engineering center.

Contact: Lumen Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.
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Northern Lights

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:00:14 +0000

Northern Lights is a glass product that can change its appearance due to a change in temperature. Human touch, a change in the ambient air temperature, hot or cold water, or any relatively warm or cool source will trigger a thermochromic response. Northern Lights material may be designed in any size or thickness of glass, colors, as well as multiple activation temperatures. Moreover, the material’s base color may be matched to custom colors.

Contact: Moving Color, Rocklin, CA, USA.
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Morphotex

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:00:17 +0000

Morphotex is the world’s first optical coloring fiber, inspired by the chromogenic principle of Morpho butterflies that inhabit areas along the Amazon in South Africa. Called “living jewels,” the cobalt-blue wings of Morpho butterflies impart vivid color although they have no pigmentation.

Teijin Fibers has recreated this effect via nanotechnology, combining a total of 61 polyester and nylon fibers in alternating layers. By controlling the thickness of each layer ranging from 70 to 100 nanometers, they can produce four basic colors (red, green, blue and violet). Although no dyes or pigments are used for Morphotex, the process reveals a rainbow of colors according to the intensity and angle of light due to this unique structure of the fiber. As there is no dyeing process involved in producing the fiber, Morphotex saves energy and minimizes industrial waste when compared with conventional methods.

Contact: Teijin Fibers Limited, Osaka, Japan.
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Strandwoven Bamboo

Blaine Brownell — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:00:57 +0000

Strandwoven bamboo is one of the most durable hardwoods known. Used typically for hardwood flooring (and other millwork components), Strandwoven bamboo is suitable both in residential and high-traffic commercial applications. Thin filaments of bamboo are mixed in a low-VOC heat sensitive resin and compressed under intense pressures to form a consistent and extremely dense log/ beam. This log is then milled into the required dimension.

Strandwoven bamboo is not only superior in its hardness and stability, it is also superior in its environmental attributes. Bamboo is a grass and grows up to sixty feet in height in a couple of months, at which time it is left to internally mature before harvesting. Unmatched with any other wood used in construction, Strandwoven bamboo uses eighty-four percent of the raw material harvested (for comparison, “traditional” bamboo flooring, which uses material significantly more effectively than any other wood, uses only sixty-five percent of the raw material harvested) in addition to using a significant percentage of postindustrial scrap, which would otherwise be burned.

Contact: Strandwoven Wood Company, Boulder, CO, USA.
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Gouged Collection

Blaine Brownell — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:08:41 +0000

Architectural Systems offers a collection of wood and integral-color MDF panels with a striking 3D-milled surface effect. A variety of milling surface patterns, wood veneers, and specialty finishes, such as matte velour, stains, and pearlescent colors, are available. The panels may be hung, affixed, or incorporated into any interior flat or curved surface. Panel thickness varies according to the selected substrate material.

Contact: Architectural Systems, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
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Lotusan

Blaine Brownell — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:00:51 +0000

The leaves of the lotus plant are immaculately clean after every rainfall because dirt and microorganisms are unable to obtain a hold on the microstructured, non-wettable surfaces of the leaves. Dirt particles, algae, and fungal spores do not become firmly attached to the leaves, merely lying loosely on the surfaces. Rain simply washes the particles away.

A team of scientists under Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott at the University of Bonn discovered the so-called “lotus effect” by learning from nature’s model. The Lotusan facade paint is the first successful practical application of the lotus effect, and about four million square meters of facade surfacing have since been coated with Lotusan paint.

Contact: Sto AG, Stühlingen, Germany.
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