Contact: Metaalwarenfabriek Phoenix BV, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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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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In recounting his experiences, the designer explains that “for these hungry little creatures to grow they require a nice hot and humid environment and food. Give them this and they basically grow on anything. In order to get the bacteria interested in the paper I used agar (a substance scientists use to cultivate bacteria in the laboratory). Fortunately some of them liked it, and some even started eating the cellulose of the paper. However if you let them grow without rules it immediately becomes chaotic. So to form images I had to control the shape of the bacterial culture right from the outset. For this I used various techniques such as silk-screen printing and old wooden-cut letters. At first the ink on the paper is hardly visible because the quantity of bacteria is minimal. But then, as they start to grow their pigment is unveiled and you begin to see them. In a converted poster box where the paper can reveal its life, messages appear and change through time.”

Contact: Jelte van Abbema, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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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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The process, which is based on a liquid extracted from biowaste, strengthens the cellular walls of wood, increases the density of the materials, and makes the product stiffer and significantly harder than untreated wood. Kebonization results in the wood cells being permanently blocked, which reduces shrinkage and swelling by approximately 50% when compared with untreated wood. The polymer is permanently bonded to the cell structure in the wood by means of a process that cannot be reversed; thus, Kebony contains no chemicals that can be released into the environment. In the waste disposal phase, Kebony can be treated as regular untreated wood.

Available Kebony species are pine, spruce, oak, beech, maple and southern yellow pine. The raw materials for Kebony are acquired from commercially managed forests with large timber harvests. Kebonized wood has a golden brown colour that naturally turns grey. Kebony acquires a natural silver-grey patina and exposure to sun and rain creates an interesting effect of visual depth.

Kebony exhibits good durability and long life spans in harsh climates, and there is no need for paint or sealing. The increased resistance protects against decay, fungi, insects and other microorganisms. Required maintenance is limited to normal cleaning.

Contact: Kebony ASA, Skien, Norway.
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Monocoque’s structural skin is generated using a Voronoi pattern, the density of which corresponds to simulated loading conditions. The distribution of shear-stress lines and surface pressure is embodied in the allocation and relative thickness of the vein-like elements built into the skin. The prototype model was 3-D printed using OBJET’s Polyjet matrix technology which allows for the assignment of structural properties to multiple 3-D printed substances. This innovative technology provides for the ability to print parts and assemblies made of multiple materials within a single build, as well as to create composite materials that present preset combinations of mechanical properties.

Contact: MIT Media Laboratory / Material Ecology, Boston, MA, USA.
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Just as our genetic code permits each of us to be unique, so too AlgoRhythm technology generates a wide range of unique forms from its genetic code. Milgo/Bufkin’s process offers a wide range of curvilinear structures with fluid movements mirroring the flows of nature. Material flows under its own weight and other forces according to morphologic laws that pertain more to fluid motion than to static objects. By freeing the elements of construction from their rigid geometries, AlgoRhythm technology unfolds infinite opportunities to model a new architecture. The undulating look of these structures results from the behavior of sheet metal under force. The forms are nondeformational, thereby maintaining the integrity of the metal.

Dr. Haresh Lalvani, architect-morphologist and inventor of these new forms, says that AlgoRhythms proceed from the bottom-up: columns, walls, and ceilings. The first series of products introduced here are based on morphologically structured information (meta architecture, genomic architecture) that permits endless variations on a theme by manipulating the morphological genome.

Contact: Milgo/Bufkin, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
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Contact: Architectural Systems, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
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NanoSurfaces’s controlled electrochemical process allows titanium to produce unusual colors such as pink, blue, brown, green, and yellow with many different intensities and finishes. These colors are chemically resistant, may be applied to complex shapes, and are suitable for interior and exterior applications. When exposed to sunlight, the colors become particularly intense and vibrant.

Contact: NanoSurfaces S.R.L., Cadriano di Granarolo (BO), Italy.
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Architect and digital fabrication researcher Neri Oxman assembled twenty tiles as a continuum composed of multiple resin types—rigid and/or flexible. She designed each tile as a structural composite representing the local performance criteria as manifested in the mixtures of liquid resin.

Contact: Material Ecology, Boston, MA, USA.
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