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Carlo Ratti's new carbon fiber museum made out of…carbon fiber

2021-08-05T15:23:00-04:00

Plans for a new museum dedicated to carbon fiber technology are taking shape in the Italian city of Piacenza, showcasing the building material by way of an experiential space that designers Carlo Ratti Architects (CRA) are hoping forms a perfect fit in the country’s prosperous Emilia-Romagna region.

The new MAE Museum––named after the machine manufacturing company headquartered in the city––will be the first-ever museum space dedicated to the material, drawing from the 53-year-old company’s inventory of manufactured objects to create what the architect says is the largest acrylic fiber archive anywhere in the world.

Courtesy Carlo Ratti Associati

The museum is located in a former warehouse space adjacent to MAE’s newest production plant and is recursively comprised of new and recycled versions of the material to which its exhibition spaces are dedicated. CRA worked with the local studio Italo Rota for the museum’s layout and creative direction.

Courtesy Carlo Ratti Associati

A giant ...

The Cube by Henn will be the world's first building made of carbon fiber-reinforced concrete

2021-07-30T19:35:00-04:00

German architecture firm Henn, along with researchers at the Technical University of Dresden, has been working to create the first building in the world made of concrete reinforced by carbon fibers instead of steel.

Labeled as the world’s first building made of carbon concrete, the Cube is currently under construction on the Technical University of Dresden campus. Henn is working with the university’s Institute for Solid Construction, led by professor Manfred Curbach. The experimental 220-square-meter building is a showcase project from the “C³ - Carbon Concrete Composite” research initiative on innovative building materials funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Through this project, carbon concrete is being researched and developed as a new combination of carbon and high-performance concrete.

According to the researchers, this type of concrete has the same structural strength as concrete reinforced with steel rebar but uses much less concrete. The concr...

The ICD/ITKE Pavilion makes use of lightweight, super strong glass and carbon-fiber materials

2017-04-18T13:19:00-04:00

Glass and carbon fiber-reinforced composites have uniquely high tensile strength while remaining lightweight. As a result, they open up a wealth of new building opportunities. The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion is meant to demonstrate and explore these potentials using long-range machines with limited payloads, like unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as precise industrial robots. Basically, the drones and robots work together (with some human guidance) to "weave" the formally-ambitious pavilion.

The Pavilion is a project of the University of Stuttgart. In the past, other pavilions have explored computational design as well as emerging engineer technologies.

Check out a video of the pavilion here:

Greg Lynn: The future of glue in architecture is bright

2016-03-14T13:41:00-04:00

Glue is the future of architecture. At least that’s how architect Greg Lynn sees it. And he’s not alone. “Mechanical assembly is already waning in many industries,” Lynn says. “An airplane now is glued together. A car now is glued together. Even a lot of appliances are being glued together.” So why not skyscrapers?

Installation of UltraRope elevators begins at Kingdom Tower

2015-05-11T15:29:00-04:00

KONE has initiated the first stage of elevator and escalator installations at Saudi Arabia’s 1km-tall Kingdom Tower. The Finnish lift firm is currently fitting elevator guiderails at the project, which is being developed by Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) and is set to become the world’s tallest building on completion.

The new elevator technology that will let cities soar far higher

2014-08-01T13:28:00-04:00

Enter the UltraRope, a new kind of lift cable developed by Finnish elevator company Kone. Eschewing woven steel cable in favour of carbon fibre, the UltraRope is described as “lift-hoisting technology” [...]. Strong and lightweight, the UltraRope will supposedly allow lifts to travel up to 1km in a single run, double what’s currently possible with a steel cable. The UltraRope is 90% lighter than the equivalent steel cable, thereby reducing the load and enabling far taller continuous runs.