Transstudio

The Shape of Materials R+D

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:27:47 +0000

Blaine Brownell will give the keynote luncheon lecture at the Architect magazine R+D Symposium in Chicago on Thursday, September 23, 2010:

Materials Innovation: At the forefront of building product science
“Blaine Brownell, author of the popular Transmaterial series of books, head of the design/research firm Transstudio, and assistant professor at the College of Design at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture, discusses the cutting edge of building materials science, from innovative products like blast-resistant fabric and soy-based polyurethane forms to the leading trends in the materials industry.”

See the full program and registration information here.

China Talk

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:21:33 +0000

Blaine Brownell will give a lecture about emergent material technologies at The College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University in Shanghai at 6:30 pm on Monday, May 24, 2010. The talk will be followed by a discussion with architecture students about potential material applications in China.

Testing Ground

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:55:55 +0000

This month’s A+U journal adopts the theme of “Materials / Treatments” in the study of international contemporary architecture and design. Sauerbruch Hutton, Foreign Office Architects, Asymptote, Eduardo Souto de Moura, David Chipperfield, and Chuck Hoberman are included in the list of creative practices currently conducting robust experiments in material applications. The essay “Testing Ground: Emergent Green Materials and Architectural Effects” introduces the volume, outlining the most significant trajectories of recent material innovations.

According to A+U, “Ceramic, glass, concrete and metals are ordinary materials architects are familiar with. Through new treatments and interpretation, these ordinary materials can be transformed by technology resulting in new architectural effects. When glass is printed, sight lines are altered, creating various degrees of transparency. In the form of a fabric, metal acquires malleability instead of rigidity. By engraving patterns onto concrete, the smooth surface takes on a new texture. The projects in this issue are marked by this characteristic that could lead us into new expectations for the future of building and construction. In his essay, Blaine Brownell introduces a host of new materials that are developed due to environmental concerns, a surge in technological advancements and the rise of developing cities. As we enter a new decade, inevitable change to architecture, construction and resources await us. As Brownell advocates, ‘it is precisely the intersection of environmental, technological, and design innovation that holds the most promising future for architecture.’”

Transmaterial 3

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:27:56 +0000

This week marks the publication of Transmaterial 3: A Catalog of Materials that Redefine our Physical Environment, by Princeton Architectural Press. Since the 2006 publication of the best-selling first volume, the Transmaterial series has aimed to inspire architects and designers looking to transform the structure, spaces, and surfaces of their projects with the latest high-tech and environmentally friendly products. The third volume in the critically acclaimed series presents over two hundred emergent materials, products, and systems that have significant potential to transform the constructed world.

Transmaterial 3 provides a broad synopsis of the state of technological advances in materials today with a special emphasis on new developments in the field of biopolymers and various agriculturally derived products; biomimetic products, systems, and processes that seek to emulate natural examples including low-embodied-energy and biochemically manufactured products; ‘grown’ materials; nanoscale marvels; renewable energy technologies; ‘second-life’ materials derived from repurposed waste; and responsive, interactive, and transformational digital interfaces that harness pervasive communication networks and are powered by low-energy illumination sources. An excellent ideas generator, Transmaterial 3 is an indispensable tool for any architect or designer looking to keep up with the current trends in the field of materials.

Click here for more information.

Five Material Trends to Watch

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:06:56 +0000

Feather Circuit Board, the University of Delaware

The new year often brings a chance to reflect, prompting us to make lists about past milestones. However, since I am usually more interested in what the future holds, I would like to offer my own list about emerging trends in materials. The following list appears on the Architect website, featuring five of the most significant material directions to watch in the next five years, including selections from my upcoming book Transmaterial 3.

Assembling Light

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:16:18 +0000

PET Wall, Transstudio

Light is essential to the realization of architecture, yet in the process of design and construction it is commonly an afterthought. Not only is the source of light important for the quality of illumination within a space, but also the materials used to capture, filter, and redirect the light. An installation at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning showcases a marriage between light and assemblage art.

The PET Wall is a self-supporting, luminous curtain comprised by repurposed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and integrated light-emitting diode (LED) nets. The lightweight structure makes use of a widely disposed post-consumer product due to its advantageous structural and light-filtering properties. Like head lamp or light fixture lenses, the particular thermoformed geometries of these transparent bottles convey and disperse illumination efficiently while obscuring glare. The result is a thickened surface comprised by modular, tactile light nodes with various possibilities for programmability and interaction.

The PET Wall is designed to expand the potential of second use materials into the building scale. Comprised by thousands of post-consumer PET bottles arrayed in stacked honeycomb modules, as well as integrated LED light nets cycling through gradually undulating sequences of warm and cool white illumination, this new self-supporting “second surface” attempts to inspire a dual reading in which the viewer is simultaneously conscious of the reuse of a commonly disposed product as well as the ephemeral atmosphere it creates when arrayed as a large, expansive light lens.

Credits
Design and installation: Transstudio
Team: Blaine Brownell, Heather Brownell, Chris Drinkwater, Natasha Krol
Location: University of Michigan
Special thanks to: Tracy Artley, Jason Bing, Lori Castle, The High Point School Students, Kevin McKay, Recycle Ann Arbor, Mark Scott, and Steve Sheldon

Alluring Materiality Revisited

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:08 +0000

One decade ago, Japan-based architecture magazine SD published a special issue on new materials entitled “Alluring Materiality.” For its ten-year anniversary, the original editorial team reconvened to produce another issue reflecting upon recent material progress, and invited Blaine Brownell to be a co-editor. The anniversary issue was recently published by Kajima Institute Publishing Co.

The editorial board for the special issue includes:
Hiroshi Ota (architect: Institute of Industrial Science, Univ. of Tokyo)
Makoto Yokomizo (architect: aat / Tokyo National University of Fine Arts)
Kotaro Imai (architect: Institute of Industrial Science, Univ. of Tokyo)
Masahi Sogabe (architect: Mikan / Kanagawa University)
Hiroshi Marubashi (architect: Amaterrace)
Takayuki Miyoshi (architect: ex-member of Toyo Ito architects)
Blaine Brownell (architect: Transstudio / University of Minnesota)

Brownell’s article (pp. 88-91) focused on disruptive material technologies and applications in architecture and design, as well as recent Transstudio research and activities.

Design Matters

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:00:08 +0000

Blaine Brownell lectured in the 2009-2010 Design Matters lecture series at the University of Illinois. The program concerns the synergistic interrelationships between design, engineering, technology, and business in the creation of innovative and successful products, services and experiences.

Bridge to the Future

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:29:02 +0000

Transstudio’s Bridge Tower proposal was featured in the September/October 2009 issue of Fabric Architecture magazine. The project proposes an urban-scaled “cloak” comprised of intelligent thermal skins that optimize energy performance in existing buildings economically while transforming their potential uses.

The proposal is an effort meant to sideline such teardown and rebuild tactics and introduce a more thoughtful—if not provocative—sustainable scheme of overlaying existing buildings with a new structural envelope. Constructed from solar-harvesting ETFE fabric systems, (the same material employed by the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, and Beijing’s Water Cube), these architectural shrouds will be resilient to heavy lateral weight loads, insulate, allow light transmission and allow for the possibility of integrated printed photovoltaics.

Return to the Megalopolis

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:30:55 +0000

Blaine Brownell gave the first talk of the Rice School of Architecture fall 2009 lecture series. Brownell was introduced by Associate Professor Dawn Finley of Interloop-Architecture, and his talk was entitled “Material Futures: Thresholds and Potentialities.”