Skip to content

BioFabricating Materials

Inroduction

What if we stopped manufacturing materials and started growing them instead?

describe what you see in this image

As designers and makers, we are comfortable using materials manufactured from chemicals, petroleum, and plastics in our daily lives. But what happens when the natural material itself becomes a living being that grows and contributes to the process of designing and manufacturing materials used in our daily lives materials that are alternatives to materials manufactured in factories?

Brief of This Week

This week, we explore the transition from a production model based on petroleum, chemicals, and plastics to bio-based alternatives sourced from algae, bacterial cellulose, food waste, and natural polymers, also redefining our relationship with materials, decomposition processes, and the concept of the circular economy.

Research

Before we start with our practical experiments in the lab or our own experiments, I would like to explain some of the relevant concepts and terms for this week, including:

Biopolymers Description
Gelatin (Animated Polymer) Provides high transparency, fast drying times, and high tensile strength, but is sensitive to high humidity.
Agar-Agar (Polysaccharide) A natural alternative extracted from red algae
Sodium Alginate provide useful textural properties and can be cross-linked to stabilize dynamic biopolymer networks.
Plasticizers & Additives Description
Glycerin Works as a molecular lubricant between polymer chains.
Water works as an essential medium for dissolving and hydrating polymers.
Fillers & Aggregates provide useful textural properties and can be cross-linked to stabilize dynamic biopolymer networks.

This is the content of Tab 3.

remove chapter 2.1 after use

Uploading images

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop. Use the caption and reference system examples you see in the template.

  2. Resize and optimize all your images. Images are optimised in size with resolution 72dpi, a good max width for full screen is 800px and passed through tinypng for final optimisation.

  3. Remove tips when you don't need them anymore!

How-to use footnotes for references or fabrication files

  1. Fabrication files are a necessary element for evaluation. You can add the fabrication files at the bottom of the page and link them as a footnote. This was your work stays organised and files will be all together at the bottom of the page. Footnotes are created using 1 (without spaces, as shown in Step 1 & 2, and referenced as you see at the bottom of this page) You can reference the fabrication files to multiple places on your page.

  2. Referenced footnotes are important for crediting work of others, within your documentation.

  3. If you are using footnotes for both, make sure to not mix them up, work with the numbering to keep things organised

How-to compress a PDF BEFORE uploading it:

Use a compressor when uploading a PDF, you can use online tools such as ilovepdf or smallpdf

How-to encode a VIDEO BEFORE uploading it:

Use a video encoder when uploading a video it needs to be well compressed, you can download tools such as Handbrake or online tools such as this Video Converter

How-to ZIP/compress a large Fabrication file:

To zip a file on Windows, right-click the file or folder, select "Show more options," choose "Send to," then "Compressed (zipped) folder." watch On a Mac, select the file or folder and choose "Compress" from the context menu. watch

get inspired!

Check out and research alumni pages to betetr understand how to document and get inspired

Add your fav alumni's pages as references

describe what you see in this image, see code to adjust width and alignment

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua."


describe what you see in this image

centered image with credits/reference

Caption for the left image

Caption for the right image


Unable to display PDF file. Download instead.
  • Video references: Vimeo (only when not yours)

Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.

  • Video references: Youtube (only when not yours)

3. Tools & Ingredients

or 

* xxx gr
* xxx gr
* xxx gr
* xxx ml
* xxx gr

* xxx gr
* xxx gr
* xxx gr
* xxx ml
* xxx gr

* measure - measure - measure
* add, combine, mix..
* simmer, cook, boil, freeze, burn, crush...
* mix, smash, stack, overlay..
* cast, pour, press..
* dry, aereate, dehydrate..
* remove, peel, unmold..
* finishing touches

4. Process and workflow

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. "

describe what you see in this image

How-to use footnotes for fabrication files

Fabrication files are a necessary element for evaluation. You can add the fabrication files at the bottom of the page and link them as a footnote. This was your work stays organised and files will be all together at the bottom of the page. Footnotes are created using 1 (without spaces, as shown in Step 1 & 2, and referenced as you see at the bottom of this page) You can reference the fabrication files to multiple places on your page.

4.1 Step 1

This model 3 was obtained by.. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

4.2 Step 2

The laser cut nesting 2 was created using.. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

4.3 Step 3

...

5. Results

Results & documentation
  • Don’t forget to document the outcome including:
  • Upload the photos & files on oscircularfashion
  • Final result
  • Photos from different stages
  • Videos of movement or interaction, show how a material moves, something was assembled or the interactive
  • Include measurements or a reference object to give a sense of size
  • Describe the (material) properties or what you made
  • Comparison between attempts, if you did multiple experiments or generated multiple files before fabricating / deploying. You can use a table as shown in week 4

5.1 Documenting experiments in a table for comparison

example from the documentation of Loes Bogers TextileLab Amsterdam 2019-20
Biofoam Gelatin foil Bioresin Biosilicone
Starch Rubber Biolinoleum Alginate net Alginate foil
Alginate string Agar foil Bio composite Reused PLA

6. Weekly reflection & critical thinking

  • What did I learn? What did I personally find interesting or surprised me?
  • What would I do differently? If something "failed" do I know how else to tackle it now?"
  • How does this connect to my final project or my learning trajectory?
  • What are implications and possible applications, think also from the ethical or environmental aspect, how it could connect to your practice and project?

NuEval — final step

Go to NuEval and fill in the checklist, when not complete notify your instructor.

7. Recipe files, Booklet and References

  1. Recipe: download my recipe booklet here ↩↩

  2. Recipe: Mycelium recipe pdf ↩

  3. Reference: Author; Title; Source; year ↩