Abstract :
The cutting edge in architecture is not sharp, but sensuous and soft. As textiles begin to emerge as megamaterials, Bradley Quinn explains how architects are pioneering new possibilities for soft structures. Fabric-formed environments are fashioning tensile buildings and inflatable pavilions, while the tailoring techniques of braiding, weaving and pleating are building supple skyscrapers and bioclimatic enclosures.
Keywords :
Sprach Pavilion , braiding and weaving , Austria , Ken Yeangיs proposal for bioclimatic architecture , 2001 , Shigeru Banיs Curtain Wall House , Triad Architects , Lévi-Straussיs theory of bricolage , Kühe & Kühn Architects , Maison Folie , A Büther , Lille , Becker & Gewers , France , GKD Metal Fabrics , Expo 2000 Bertelsmannיs Planet M , 2004 , Felted fabrics , Germany , Semper , Mediamesh stainless-steel textile , Hanover , Geotextiles , carbon-fibre matrices and triaxial meshes , The Fabric Framework project , Metallic fabrics , 2000 , Veech Media Architecture , Buckminster Fuller , coated textiles and nonwoven fabrics , Inflate and Architects of Air , Karau , Lars Spuybroek , pneumatic structures , Mark West at the Centre for Architectural Structure and Technology
