Tag: textile block

Architecture has long been concerned with an integrated response to environment. Beyond the utilitarian assembly of appropriate materials and construction systems addressing various climatic conditions, architecture has continuously sought an elegant advancement of meaningful program and spatial experience in its relationship to its site. Now, traditional construction materials can be rethought for architectural purpose, providing opportunities for structural optimization, systems integration, but also architectural expression. The Manuscript Library introduced here investigates the possibilities of an on-site printed sand-based masonry block and steel hybrid structural system as a moment for tectonic expression. The system seeks to create a tension that can be read between the perceived heavy attributes of the block and the lightness of a second supporting system that is expressed, using the 3D-printed material’s limits to augment its architectural and spatial possibilities.

3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM), marks the latest in a series of technological and societal revolutions that span from the printing press to the personal computer and beyond. A key asset of this technology is that it aligns the architect with the manufacturing process, integrating the design and fabrication. Additive manufacturing, particularly fused deposition modeling (FDM), can further weave construction typologies like Frank Lloyd Wright’s textile block system by controlling the deposition process to create lightweight stressed-skin blocks with the potential for multiple functions. The research and creation of an initial prototype Woven Block module using FDM printing will be discussed.