Tecknit is a research-based project that works with textile production methods as a primary technique for the development of new design forms as well as new material explorations in architecture. Being part of the M.Arch GAD Cluster 6 at The Bartlett School of Architecture, the digital tools we used were a key tool in the exploration of intricate geometrical shapes and complex resolutions. Most importantly, the material research and the trial and error speculative results is what drives the study to a new but real outcome.

 

This project works in a nearly unexplored territory of avant-garde way of thinking that includes not only Architectural Design but Material Experimentation as well. The Digital simulations, the material testing and the possibility to really make what is being design in the computer, validates the agenda of modern and contemporary explorative design.

 

 

Digital design is then a primary tool in this experiment, based on the braiding and weaving methodologies used to produce textiles, a flocking simulation ran with a processing script, helped develop a catalogue of different form-finding components. These components were then controlled to create a surface, a column or a branch to develop either a small-scale piece of furniture like a chair or a whole urban proposal for the architectural scenario.

 

With that idea in mind, this project will also work on an urban scenario, but taken as an abstract exploration of what could be the architectural development of the system. The idea will eventually drive the concept to produce structural and spatial shapes to correlate with their surrounding.