Knit Architecture: Exploration of Hybrid Textile Composites Through the Activation of Integrated Material Behavior

Abstract

The hybrid system in textile composites refers to the structural logic defined by Heino Engel, which describes a system that integrates multiple structural behaviors to achieve an equilibrium state (Engel 2007). This research explores a material system that can demonstrate a hybrid material behavior defined by the differentiated tensile and bending-active forces in a single, seamless knitted composite material. These behaviors were installed during the materialization phase and activated during the composite formation process. Here, the material formation involves two interdependent processes: 1) development of the knitted textile with integrated tensile and reinforced materials and 2) development of the composite by applying pre-stress and vacuuming the localized area with reinforcements in a consistent resin-based matrix. The flat bed industrial weft knitting machine has been utilized to develop the knitted textile component of the system with a controlled knit structure. This enables us to control the material types, densities, and cross sections with integrated multiple layers/ribs and thus, the performance of the textile at the scale of fiber structure. Both of these aspects were researched in parallel, using physical and computational methods informed and shaped by the potentials and constraints of each other. A series of studies has been utilized to develop small-scale prototypes that depict the potential of the hybrid textile composite as the generator of complex form and bending active structures. Ultimately, it indicates the possibilities of hybrid textile composite materials as self-structuring lightweight components that can perform as highly articulated and differentiated seamless architectural elements that are capable of trans- forming the perception of light, space, and touch.