Hasta La Ideas

It seems like nearly every video from the MIT MediaLab is bound to be come a “holy-crap-technology-is-awesome” viral hit, and the latest one from the Mediated Matter group is no exception. Unveiled last week, the Silk Pavilion “explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales.”

Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density. Overall density variation was informed by the silkworm itself deployed as a biological “printer” in the creation of a secondary structure. A swarm of 6,500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffold spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gaps across CNC-deposited silk fibers.

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