The translucent, lightweight, and malleable properties of textiles have been utilized for centuries in architecture, furniture, and apparel design. It sounds like something that comes of out Batman Begins. But this is real life, typically, stretching fabric onto rigid structural frames requires complex molding and mechanical methods. The new research from ‘Self Assembly Lab at MIT demonstrates a new method for utilizing textiles that can take advantage of its unique properties while reducing the complexity of forming processes. By printing material in varied layer thicknesses onto stretched textiles they were able to create self-transforming structures that reconfigure into pre-programmed shapes. Programmable textiles open up new possibilities for furniture, product manufacturing, and shipping as well as new methods for self-assembly and user interaction.
Props to the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT + Christophe Guberan + Erik Demaine + David Costanza + Autodesk Inc.
Project Team: Skylar Tibbits, Christophe Guberan, Athina Papadopoulou, Carrie McKnelly, Chris Martin, Filipe Campos, Hannarae Annie Nam