Knitted Architecture

Full description

Background: Investigations into light weight knitted structures in the fabrication of architectural elements have been progressing internationally with figures such as Jenny Sabin (Cornell University), Mette Ramsguard Thomsen (Cita, RDAFA) who are investigating novel fibers and complex clusters of knitted structures. While these leaders in the field have successfully installed large scale fabrications (for example: Mette in the 2018 Venice Biennale - Danish pavilion and Jenny Sabin in numerous installations including the Moma PS1), neither are investigating the ability of these whole garment machines to produce complex form - an area of interest for architecture as it is very difficult and expensive to do in projects.

Contribution:
The knitted architecture exhibition demonstrates how large-scale elements that have complex curves can be produced in industrial whole garment knitting machines without seams, or labour intensive post-production sewing creating an opportunity for architects who are seeking to produce lightweight solutions to formwork or feature elements in buildings. The project developed a unique digital language that can transfer architectural form into fabrication language ready for manufacturing,. The abstract forms featured are designed to show just how complex these machines can make without the need for time consuming postproduction.


Significance:
This work was commissioned by Ewan McEoin - senior curator at the National Gallery of Victoria. There were only 5 selected exhibitors. This commission was funded by the NGV with some support from RMIT. The other exhibitors include world leading researchers: Assoc. Prof. Roland Snooks - a leader in the field of computational algorithmic modeling and robotic fabrication, Dr Pirjo Haikola and designer Alex Goad both internationally renowned for their work at the intersection of science, engineering, and technology to search for ways to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.