The Natural Materials Lab’s weaved lattice structures demonstrate a hybrid approach to manual and machine printing using radically low-carbon materials.

Traditionally, textiles have utilized natural fibers; however, with the introduction of petroleum and synesthetic yarns, manufacturing practices have been shifted to plastic fibers that are carbon intensive and nondegradable. Looking at ubiquitous raw soils and fiber materials, these lattice textiles are inspired by loom weaving protocols. Categorizing weaving practices, followed by extrusion experiments using earth-fiber additive mix-designs, this work investigates hybrid human-machine production for axial loom weaving.

Material Acts examines the role of nature as a starting point for material experimentation in the domains of architecture, craft, and science. While nature has often stood in as a model, metaphor, or resource for designers, the recent global upheavals in climate, ecology, and technology are driving intensive understandings of nature’s tangible and imagined substrate.