Ehsan Baharlou will present his research titled “Material Tectonics” on Saturday, October 21 at the 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies. Dr. Baharlou’s research focuses on integrating material capacities and fabrication limitations into design processes. He will delve into material tectonics, focusing on approaches to develop eco-resilient structures using robotic additive manufacturing. The project highlights the difficulties and potentials of 3D printing eco-resilient materials in order to reduce the embodied energy of the building industry. He will present during the session on material technologies.
For more information on the ACSA/AIA conference, please go here.
MyCoLab: Robotic Fabrication of Architectured Mycelium Composites for Sustainable Construction
Description
Increasing awareness of the embodied carbon footprint of buildings has shifted interest in the construction industry towards the development of renewable and biodegradable materials to create a sustainable built environment and circular economy.
Mycelium, a subsurface system of fungal hyphae, has unique characteristics that can be leveraged to produce low carbon, energy-efficient, bio-based building materials. When combined with organic substrates such as sawdust, straw, or hemp, mycelium develops a network of extremely dense fibers and acts as a natural binder to create composite materials without a need for energy input or synthetic adhesives. Mycelium-bonded composites have been commonly fabricated by pouring the substrate and mycelium spawn into a mold and leaving it for the mycelium to grow.
Although molding is a simple process in fabrication, it bears two limitations that cripple the adoption of this approach for sustainable construction. First, this fabrication process limits the size, especially the depth, of end products. Fungal growth in the core of large-size components remains challenging due to the organism’s need for oxygen for optimal growth. Second, the shape and complexity of elements depend on the availability of molds, which limits design freedom. Novel strategies that eliminate the need for molds, whether single use or reusable, will lead to more sustainable construction practices.
Recent advances in additive manufacturing have enabled the design and fabrication of complex, innovative materials that are technologically and economically feasible. Linking these advantages offered by a new manufacturing technique with data-driven material design approaches will set the groundwork for achieving dramatic progress in the fabrication of large-scale circular mycelium composites.
This CoLab project brings together a cross-disciplinary team to develop the fundamental knowledge needed to exploit the unique properties of mycelium in the fabrication of high-performance composite materials for building applications. The team hypothesizes that by altering the inner makeup of mycelium composites, including composition and internal structure at the microlevel and at larger length scales, inventive materials with improved thermal, acoustic, and mechanical properties can be designed.
The goal of this pilot study is to develop an understanding of key factors that affect the performance of additively manufactured mycelium composites. The successful demonstration of these ideas will position the team to compete strongly in major external funding opportunities and emerge as leaders in the Sustainable Construction research program.
Project Team
Ehsan Baharlou (Assistant Professor, School of Architecture), Prasanna Balachandran (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Material Science & Engineering), Osman Ozbulut (Associate Professor, Dept. of Engineering Systems & Environment)
The project “Robotic Serpentine Wall” investigates new, unexpected uses of wood to construct an inhabitable structure. It created a structure that 1) celebrates steam bending’s ability to radically change wood’s structural potential; 2) is inhabitable, improves the site on which it was built, and is connected with the history of its larger context; and 3) was data- and mathematically driven.
This project responded to its site—the North Terrace of UVA’s School of Architecture—in two ways. First, it negotiated the step between the ground and the top of the planter box, a distance of 26 ½”, in a way that encourages small group interactions. Second, the form responds to the complex history of serpentine walls at UVA. This sinusoidal shape was manipulated to create a structure that produced a small gathering area on one side and a seat on the other. It was then reverse-engineered to minimize the number of unique components upon construction.
Several experiments were conducted to test the amount that pieces of birch plywood and oak plywood reverted to their original shape following steaming and either bending or twisting; birch plywood performed better in both. A third experiment determined plywood pieces needed to be a minimum length of 24” to prevent cracking as a result of twisting.
Prototyping the structure led to the discovery that the primary pieces work in tension, not compression. This in turn resulted in the inclusion of additional support pieces for greater structural stability.
The final design was constructed through a complex process of cutting, twisting and bending, and slotting the pieces together. Each piece was machine cut according to the specific measurements dictated by the digital design. They were then steamed before being twisted and bent into position, allowed to dry, and put together. The final assembly process revealed that the connections between wall sections were necessary for the structure to be free-standing.
This project was awarded the 2021 Bruce Abbey Technology Award. It was featured on the University of Virginia School of Architecture’s website.
Due to the critical situation of COVID-19, a smart mask—called SMASK—was designed that lowers a face shield over the wearer’s face whenever someone is detected within six feet.
Program Development
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
Integral to the project was the premise of crowd sourcing, which involved designing and making open source both the online user interface and the wearable device. The mask can be customized and assembled by anyone, and used both in COVID and post-COVID times.
Consumers can select specific use cases based on their needs. Depending on their data privacy needs, they can select their preferences in sharing data. Users can also measure their head to produce a better fitting head ring. The information provided by the customer will allow for personalized feedback and help selecting which face shield to use.
The mask autonomously functions at the individual, surrounding, and regional levels. Through informal data collection and processing, it studies emerging social patterns and its (and users’) interactions with the built environment under certain spatial restrictions. In this way, citizens themselves become sensors of the city and are able to report and potentially solve emerging problems.
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