Transmaterial » specialties

GKD Metal Fabrics

Blaine Brownell — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:00:03 +0000

Woven metal fabrics have been developed for use as decorative and functional design elements in architecture. The French National Library in Paris was the first architectural project where GKD, in cooperation with French architect Dominique Perrault, succeeded in systematically implementing metal meshes in a building in various ways and applications. Since then, this development has continued worldwide.

For decades, GKD has manufactured metal fabrics for industrial applications in filtration and separation technologies and the process belt sector. At first, it was their visual attractiveness that made metal fabrics suitable for the architecture and design sector. During the continuous product development, it became clear that metal fabrics also have considerable technical advantages which are extremely relevant in the field of architecture. Today, the architect has a wide range of fabric samples at hand, with weaving widths up to 26 feet.

Woven metal fabrics may be used as partition elements, projection screens, and acoustic scrims appropriate for public buildings, opera houses and concert halls.

Contact: GKD-USA, Inc., Cambridge, MD, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Wind 3.0

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:00:05 +0000

Wind 3.0 is an interactive wall feature comprised by hundreds of fibers which respond to a viewer’s presence based on a connection between electronic sensors and ventilators. Wind 3.0 moves with the viewer—when there is a lot of activity the wall makes large fluid motions, while in other circumstances the fiber animation resembles a soft breeze. In this way, a direct relationship is made between human behavior and sculptural dynamics. Developed by Netherlands-based Studio Roosegaarde, Wind 3.0 plays with the similarities and differences between nature and technology.

Contact: Studio Roosegaarde, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Find more information in Transmaterial 3.

NovaCork

Blaine Brownell — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:00:04 +0000

NovaCork panels are ideal for tackable surface applications located in high-traffic areas. The combination of post-consumer recycled cork and a post-consumer recycled Homasote substrate provides a durable and environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional cork boards. NovaCork panels are also available with a Class A fire-rating.

Contact: Homasote, West Trenton, NJ, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Origins

Blaine Brownell — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:51:22 +0000

Origins one hundred percent postconsumer recycled polyethylene panels provide an alternative to virgin polyethylene versions. Origins panels possess virtually identical properties compared with virgin panels, and they are available in numerous colors and patterns, including custom patterns.

Origins material is primarily comprised of translucent one gallon milk jugs, which are collected locally and processed by grinding, washing, and forming the plastic into pellets. These pellets are transformed into plastic resin, which may be further processed or directly pressed into panels.

Contact: Yemm & Hart Ltd., Marquand, MO, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Moveable Walls

Blaine Brownell — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:00:40 +0000

Waste resulting from the traditional construction, demolition, and renovation of buildings contributes to twenty-five to thirty-three percent of the total waste stream in North America, and fifteen percent of that amount is drywall waste. Overburdened landfills and the consumption of virgin resources are significant problems that influenced Haworth to develop a sustainable moveable wall solution for the office market.

Unitized construction allows Haworth’s moveable panels to be relocated without disassembly for faster installation and reconfiguration timelines. The various available wall coverings and finishes are made from rapidly renewable and recycled materials. The moveable wall system is also designed for disassembly, refinishing, and/or recycling at the end of its lifecycle in order to support Haworth’s “cradle to cradle” design rationale.

State-of-the-art materials such as luminescent glass and light-refracting films are also available and bring daylight farther into the office interior, thus reducing typical lighting loads.

Contact: Haworth, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

PINnacle

Blaine Brownell — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:00:23 +0000

PINnacle is a recycled-paper panel supplied with a velvetlike sanded surface for a more elegant appearance than conventional tackboards. Both PINnacle 440 and Class A fire-rated PINnacle NCFR panels may be used wall covering. The panels are easy to maintain, and their uniform thickness makes them a good substrate for fabric wrapping.

Contact: Homasote, West Trenton, NJ, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

E Ink

Blaine Brownell — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:00:11 +0000

Electronic ink consists of an electronically coated optical film used in the manufacturing of high contrast, sunlight-readable, ultra-low–power electronic paper displays. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, which are about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot.

To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. These microcapsules are suspended in a liquid carrier medium, allowing them to be printed using existing screen printing processes onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric, and even paper. Ultimately, electronic ink will permit most any surface to become a display, bringing information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us.

Contact: E Ink Corporation, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Body Brush

Blaine Brownell — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:00:58 +0000

Body Brush is a real-time body-driven immersive experience. It captures spatial human motion data and transforms it into a rich variety of 3D visual forms that are visualized through a stereo projector and has 3D sound.

The Body Brush process is achieved with the development of a low-cost computer-vision–based motion analysis system using frontal infrared illumination in addition to an innovative graphic rendering software, which translates anatomical gestures into 3D digital pathways.

Professional visual artists can use this intuitive interface to create rich 2D, 3D, or animated visual artwork. Since the tracking system can be easily adapted to stage lighting, stage setup, and costumes, the Body Brush interface can augment live performances with real-time interaction between dancers or actors, the audiovisual output, and the machine. Research is also currently being conducted to transform the Body Brush interface into a semi-immersive virtual environment with body-driven audiovisual feedback for therapeutic applications.

Contact: IMVR Lab, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Lighttex

Blaine Brownell — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:00:05 +0000

When used as a window and skylight covering, the polyester-based Lighttex panel blocks and redistributes direct sunlight more effectively than vertical or horizontal blinds and creates diffused interior daylight with improved uniformity.

Lighttex walls and space partitions enable daylight penetration while providing a view for occupants in an interior space. At an angle, the wall appears opaque, creating a sense of privacy, and yet when viewing the material directly it becomes transparent, creating a sense of openness and a view outside.

Lighttex is an integration of architecture and space, enabling architects to design flat and curved ceilings that appear as a luminous floating element in the space while providing soft light distribution. Various dramatic lighting effects can be achieved depending on the placement and type of light fixtures, creating a broad palette of solutions with simple variables.

Contact: Lighttex Canada, Inc., Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Paper Softwall

Blaine Brownell — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:07:57 +0000

The Paper Softwall is a lightweight freestanding wall that can be arranged into almost any shape or easily compressed into a compact sheaf and stored away. Softwall dampens sound and can both absorb and transmit light. The product is made from four hundred layers of honeycombed translucent white, fire-retardant paper, bounded by natural wool felt ends. The thick felt ends fold to create handles when the wall is open, and form a casing when the wall is compressed.

The Paper Softwall is modular, as the felt ends haveVelcro fasteners, which can link walls together. Although paper is delicate, the Paper Softwall’s honeycomb design makes it surprisingly resilient to normal handling.

Contact: Molo, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Find more information in Transmaterial.