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Cocoon-shaped lamp made from plastic bags wins Pratt Institute School of Design 2020 Material Lab Prize

2020-08-26T20:00:00-04:00

The inaugural Material Lab Prize is an initiative that aims to foster the study of materials and material reuse. A $1k grant is given to the student that best exemplifies innovative ways to reuse and redesign waste. According to Pratt, "the prize seeks to celebrate and exhibit student work that re-envisions the design process and considers waste streams as a springboard for new design thinking."

"Cocoon" by Sophia Yimeng Sun. Image courtesy of Pratt Institute's Material Lab

This year's grand prize winner was awarded to Sophia Yimeng Sun (MID ’21) and her project "Cocoon." Sun used HDPE plastic bags to create pleated lampshades. She shares with Material Lab that the project, "reuses waste plastic bags, and provokes minds to contemplate how we deal with waste. I named this project COCOON, not only because it visually compliments a cocoon, but also the project is an homage to 'rebirth.'"

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A new "super wood" nanofiber biomaterial is stronger than spider silk

2018-05-11T14:56:00-04:00

Spider silk has long held the title of strongest natural biomaterial, so scientists have been trying to harness it, mimic it and even improve on the recipe for years. Now, researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new biomaterial out of wood nanofibers that steals the strength record.

A new material called "super wood" is eight times stiffer than silk, which has been considered one of the strongest bio-based materials. KTH researchers found a new technique to "densify" wood where fibers assemble to make the cell walls stiff and strong, a process called cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs).

This wood nanomaterial is found to be as strong as steel, surpassing metals, alloys, ceramics and E-glass fibers. Researchers assert the technique could be used to produce strong and lightweight materials for constructing cars, planes, bikes, and furniture—as well as helping to assemble other nanofibers like carbon tubes.

From concrete to composites, Designing Material Innovation exhibit at CCA addresses questions about our past, present, and possible futures

2017-10-24T17:58:00-04:00

From glass fiber reinforced concrete to upcycled waste foam, the building blocks of the future are being developed in the research labs of today and a current exhibit at the California College of Arts in San Francisco is putting some of these new methods and techniques on display. Curated by Jonathan Massey—the new Dean of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning—and designed by Clark Thenhaus of Endemic, Designing Material Innovation features five full-scale prototypes that conjoin form and material in fresh ways.

Located on the school's Back Lot, the five pieces "explore the functional and experiential dimensions of architecture generated at the intersection of formal and material research." All products of experimentation in and around North American architecture schools, the prototypes exemplify great technical capacities in concrete and composites. In showing advanced design and fabrication techniques, they demonstrate how "architectural research addresses...