TEXTILES.ORG
Filigree design, lightness, corrosion resistance and material efficiency: without these characteristics future architecture is unimaginable. Based on these characteristics, textile institutes and companies have been researching fiber-based alternative building materials and developing marketable products that will increasingly replace conventional materials like steel and offer equal or even better material properties. The future of textile construction will be part of exhibitions available at Techtextil, May 4–7, where scientists and manufacturers will present developments in construction and architecture.
Among the products to be presented is textile concrete, which uses armorings made of two- and three-dimensional glass and carbon fibers hardened in plastic material. Steel gets rusty and is covered with tons of concrete to provide protection, but textile concrete is non-corrosive and less susceptible to rust and cracks produced by salt, water and other environmental influences. As a consequence, it is more durable and saves on maintenance and repair.
The German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt) gave its approval in 2014 for the carbon-fiber-reinforced lightweight construction. The procedure of armoring reinforced concrete by means of Tudalit textile concrete was approved by the building supervision authority.
Textiled Spaces’, an exhibition of particular interest to civil engineers, architects, designers and interior designers, will feature photographs by Deidi von Schaeven, which present numerous bodies of work demonstrating the variety and aesthetics of technical textiles within unusual and extraordinary urban and architectonic environments.