Silk Pavilion by MIT Media Lab

Introduction

Silk pavilion is a dome-like suspended structure firstly woven by a robotic arm using silk fibres, which was then finished by live silkworms. This project by MIT Media Lab's mediated matter group unprecedentedly combined scientific research, digital designs, and biological fabrication techniques together in an architecture scale.

Process

"Inspired by the silkworms' ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length)" (Kayser et al., 2013) Researchers motion tracked silkworm's movements by attaching small magnets to their head to collect data, which allows the robotic arm to imitate the way silkworm build its cocoon. The robotic than "deposits across 26 flat polygonal metal frames"(Howarth, 2013) as the primary geometry of the pavilion, using a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density just like the silkworms. These panels together form a dome that suspended from the ceiling.

For the secondary structure, "6500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffolding spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gap across silk fibers."(Kayser et al., 2013) Because of the worms were like to immigrate to a dark area, the fibres were laid denser on the northwest side of the structure.

Analysis

I found this project really interesting on how it intensely connects biology and technology. The correlation between silkworm and the robotic arm is fascinating, as"the research shows the blind instinct of silkworms is sometimes revealed as almost machine-like" (Stott, 2013). Because of the behavior of worms are affected by environment, the density and thickness could be the control on structural and environmental constraints, which makes it more like a mobile 3D multi-material printer.

It opens new possibilities to what 3D printer could be like. As Neri Oxman, the director of Mediated Matter group believes, " by studying natural process such as the way silkworms build their cocoons, scientists can develop ways of 'priming' architectural structures more efficiently than can be achieved by current 3D printing technology." Traditional 3D printing was limited by the granted-size poses and layering structure. "The gantry limitations can be overcome by printing using multiple interactive robot printers, and process limitations can be overcome by moving from layering to weaving in 3D space using a robotic arm." Oxman indicated this in Deezen interviews(Fairs, 2013).  I always found 3D printing objects have similar structures if we could be free of these limitations it would have numerous possibilities for what could be print more than we could imagine.


Reference

Fairs, M. (2013). MIT researchers to 3D print a pavilion by imitating silkworms. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2013/03/13/mit-researchers-to-3d-print-a-pavilion-by-imitating-silkworms/ [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].

Howarth, D. (2013). Silkworms and robot work together to weave Silk Pavilion. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2013/06/03/silkworms-and-robot-work-together-to-weave-silk-pavilion/ [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017]

Kayser, M., Laucks, J., Duro-Royo, J., Uribe, C. and Oxman, N. (2013). Silk Pavillion Environment | CNC Deposited Silk Fiber & Silkworm Construction | MIT Media Lab. [online] Matter.media.mit.edu. Available at: http://matter.media.mit.edu/environments/details/silk-pavillion [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].

Stott, R. (2013). Silk Pavilion / MIT Media Lab. [online] ArchDaily. Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/384271/silk-pavilion-mit-media-lab [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].