An Exploration of Art Materials the Intersection of Art and Science
Popularly known as the lotus, the aquatic species Nelumbo nucifera has a useful particularity. Its leaves are cocky-cleaning, or ultra-hydrophobic. This means that no particles of dirt or water adhere to its leaf, which is specially useful in the humid and dirty environments where the plant typically grows. Notwithstanding, this outcome does non derive from a perfectly smooth surface or a resinous layer on the leaves. The lotus is, in fact, total of tiny folds that reduce the area of the contact surface and repel all the particles that try to adhere at that place. The lotus effect has been studied by nanotechnologists in order to utilize this same effect to products, such as surfaces, paints, fabrics, and tiles that tin easily clean themselves. Every bit picayune equally this may seem, when we recollect of the resource practical to cleaning skyscraper glass or even of the reduction in photovoltaic free energy generation due to dust on solar panels, we can get a sense of the infinite possibilities that hydrophobic surfaces could represent.
Nature, over billions of years, has adult adaptive solutions that are beginning to be understood by us with new technologies practical to the needs of areas such as the construction industry. When professionals such equally scientists, biologists, engineers, architects, and others join forces and focus on understanding aspects of nature, with an empathetic and respectful view, the results can be impressive.
Another like example comes from the oceans. The US Naval Research Office has asked a scientist to look for strategies to reduce the utilise of toxic and expensive antifouling paints ordinarily used on docks, designed to prevent algae proliferation. The inspiration for the solution came from shark skin. When examining sharks' dermal denticles, researchers found that they were arranged in a diamond design, in a fashion that discouraged microorganisms from settling downward. The microorganisms do not dice; they but accept no involvement in remaining on the surface, due to the uncomfortable geometry. Engineers adult the technology Sharklet from this reasoning. The developed artificial pattern is extremely pocket-size—nearly 3 microns high and ii microns wide—and cannot be seen with the naked eye or felt by touch, only it is there, protecting the surface from against bacteria and other microorganisms. Studies accept even suggested that such surfaces may prevent the growth and spread of affliction-causing leaner, including the feared superbug Staphylococcus aureus, which are resistant to antibiotics commonly used to treat staph infections and are known to cause serious hospital infections.
These 2 cases exemplify the field of biomimetics, which is aught more than innovation inspired past nature. More than seeking to reproduce a natural form, biomimicry seeks to understand and imitate biological practices and strategies to create and design products and processes that can help solve our design needs. Biomimetic materials are synthetic materials (made by man) that imitate natural ones or that follow a design motif derived from nature. Higher up all, it is a multidisciplinary approach. It embraces a perspective toward nature that learns from nature as a way to solve human being problems, as Janine Benyus points out. The term biomimicry was popularized after the release of Benyus' book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
It is common and natural to restrict ourselves to specific areas of knowledge to seek inspiration for our work. Just it can also terminate upwardly creating barriers between disciplines and professions. Whether this is a legacy of our pedagogies, of capitalism, or whether it is a behavior inherent to human beings, this article does not pretend to have an answer. But when it comes to breaking down the barriers of architecture, a proper name that comes to mind is that of Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983). He was an advocate of what he called "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science" and coined the term "pattern science revolution." His main premise was that the omnipotent and existing order of nature should guide all human projects, if we are to survive and thrive as a species. Many of Fuller's concerns about the world have materialized, while several of his ideas have been made possible and tested by advanced applied science almost twoscore years after his expiry.
In fact, responsive, resilient, or self-correcting materials are no longer science fiction inventions. An example is the Leaner-based cocky-healing physical, which cocky-regenerates when cracks appear. We know how much h2o infiltration damages reinforced concrete structures, especially through the oxidation of concrete reinforcement. Just what if water, when entering the piece, could be part of the solution? The reasoning is interesting: along with the traditional mixture of the physical, bacterial spores (Bacilus pseudofirmus) are included in tiny water-permeable capsules. They will remain inert and will not bear upon the integrity of the structure. This changes when a scissure forms and water seeps into the physical. Every bit soon as the water touches the capsules, the spores are activated and these leaner will produce calcite, which acts equally a kind of biocement, filling the cracks in the concrete equally the leaner move. The new material uses biology and engineering concepts and aims at a solution that tin regenerate itself. The widespread apply of this solution is still limited past its high toll, but prototypes have already been built in underground structures that are hard to access. To safely work with bacteria during construction, collaboration with biologists and scientists is essential. Of form, working with this material is non like buying a package of yeast at the supermarket. Leaner must exist candy properly and this requires an enormous amount of human resource, technologies, and knowledge—that is, many disciplines sitting at the same table to develop the same projection.
However, it is hard for our imagination to motion by the repertoire we already have to make it at something actually creative. And then much so that, so far in this article, just solutions using known materials have been cited, which exercise not go so far every bit to redefine the way constructions have always been made. Neri Oxman, professor at MIT and coordinator of the Mediated Matter Group, points out that "since the industrial revolution, the world of blueprint has been dominated by the rigor of manufacturing and mass production. Assembly lines dictated a earth fabricated of parts, framing the imagination of designers and architects, who were trained to think about their objects every bit a result of parts with unlike functions." This ways of production contrasts the natural processes, where like cells transform and adapt to perform different functions, and structures are optimized for a multiplicity of functions at various scales: structural load, environmental pressures, spatial restrictions, and and so on. Instead of assembling parts, natural structures grow. Could our materials exist similar that too?
The concept of Material Ecology is a scientific approach that explores, informs, and expresses the interrelationships between the built environment, technology, and nature. The Mediated Thing Group works on how digital manufacturing technology tin can interact with the biological at the intersection betwixt the material, physical, digital. The group has developed projects including glass printers, pavilions built past silkworms, pieces of art, and materials that could supplant plastic, demonstrating the infinite possibilities that may come from the combination of nature, technology, and art.
Rethinking the way we are building our world is essential for a healthy future. Leaning on nature seems to be a logical path. Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity's need for ecological resource and services in a given year volition exceed what the World can regenerate in that year. In 2020, it vicious on August 22. In other words, humanity used all the natural resources that the World could furnish for a full year by that date—including the ability of natural ecosystems to blot carbon emissions from burning fossil fuel. The appointment is calculated by comparing the total annual consumption of humanity (Ecological Footprint) with the Earth's chapters to regenerate renewable natural resource that twelvemonth (biocapacity). Each year, that date gets earlier, which is very worrying. Few volition object to the reality that we are going the wrong mode in how we are treating the planet. As the famous phrase says: "Insanity is wanting different results past doing everything exactly the aforementioned." If the problems are global, adopting a multidisciplinary stance is essential to facing these issues and seeking effective results.
This article is role of the ArchDaily Topic: Commonage Design. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Larn more than virtually our monthly topics. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.
Cite: Souza, Eduardo. "Materials at the Intersection of Nature, Engineering science, Art and Compages" [Aprendendo com a natureza: materiais que unem tecnologia, arquitetura e arte] 25 May 2021. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/962156/materials-at-the-intersection-of-nature-technology-art-and-compages> ISSN 0719-8884
Source: https://www.archdaily.com/962156/materials-at-the-intersection-of-nature-technology-art-and-architecture
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