climate

futures


On view at the Liberty Research Annex
October 17, 2024 - January 1, 2025


about
projects
  1. 22/26 Midwest
  2. Ambiguous Territory
  3. Annotation and Insulation
  4. Asutsuare Rebound
  5. Atlas of the Trans-Apocalypse
  6. Becoming Biomass
  7. Bespoke Ultra-Thin Layered 3D-printed Reusable Wood-Bio-Based Formwork for Casting Complex Concrete Geometries
  8. Branch Wall: Geometrically Informed Non-Planar Toolpath and Material Deposition
  9. Deploy 2.0
  10. Detroit Cultural Center
  11. Elephant in the Room, and Other Fables
  12. Fabric-Formed Unstabilized Poured Earth
  13. Frie(s/d)
  14. Functionally Graded Additive Manufacturing
  15. Guidance for Designing and Implementing Constitutionally Valid Local Plans and Regulations to Protect Landmarked Trees, Woodlands, and Tree Canopy in Michigan
  16. Heat and Housing: Co-producing Passive Cooling Strategies and Promoting Health in Informal and Precarious Settlements
  17. Hygroscopic Envelope: Building Enclosures for Climate Adaptation
  18. In My Backyard
  19. In-Svalbard: Cold Coast Atlas
  20. Land, Foodways, and Kinship: The Case of Palestinian Villages
  21. Light Forms
  22. MiCE Architecture: Design Strategies to Mitigate Michigan Coastal Erosion
  23. Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
  24. Myco-Composite Furniture
  25. Post Rock Post-Industrial Plastic Facade
  26. re:FE Reimagining Mining Waste from a Wounded Region
  27. Shell Wall: Coupling Non-Planar Robotic 3D Concrete Printing and Topology Optimization
  28. Solar Technology Integration on Building Facades
  29. The Canopy
  30. The Lifespan Project
  31. Unfolding Forms of Conveyance
  32. Urban Climate Law Series
  33. Vertical Wetlands





Functionally Graded Additive ManufacturingAlireza Fazel, Rachael Henry, Wes McGee        2024

14



In the biological world, material is rarely homogeneous and elemental. Natural materials like wood are complex composites composed of fibers and natural binders, while vertebrate bones feature continuous gradients of density; both configuration’s result in high stiffness to weight ratios. This research explores the emerging potential of functionally-graded, multi-material additive manufacturing (FGAM) to produce high performance, materially efficient building components. FGAM builds on the geometric freedom provided by typical 3D printing processes by adding the capability to locally tailor material composition continuously across a singular component. In the context of architecture and construction, this local tailoring could address daylight or air transmission, creating building components that more effectively manage solar heat gain and natural lighting, contributing to passive cooling and energy efficiency in buildings. Challenges such as thermal bridging can also be addressed with strategically placed insulating polymers. Simultaneously, the structural performance of components can be enhanced through materials with tunable density and stiffness. FGAM also allows multiple building components to be consolidated, eliminating interfaces and mechanical connections which are prone to fail or leak. This overall goal of this approach is to reduce material usage and improve the overall quality and performance of the printed elements, leading to lower energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Additional credits:
Research Assistant: Jutang Gao