HBBE

Welcome Evgueni Filipov

Ben Bridgens — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 18:57:31 +0000

Evgueni Filipov is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For the 2025 calendar year he is a Visiting Fellow in the HBBE and Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape. His visit is sponsored by a prestigious Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship which is designed to give experienced researchers an opportunity to pivot into new fields of study. Evgueni has joined the HBBE to enter the field of mycelium biomaterials, where he is interested in exploring the bonding mechanisms between mycelium hyphae, organic substrates, and knitted scaffolds. He plans to create mechanics-based models to simulate, design and optimize the behavior of biohybrid systems, with the long-term goal of growing low-cost regenerative infrastructure.

The Living Room: New expressions of biohybrid textile architecture

Ben Bridgens — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 13:22:06 +0000

How can the intersection of textile practices, biofabrication, and computation disrupt industrial construction processes to deliver scalable solutions for regenerative architecture? Materialised through a textile logic, this research presents a multi-scalar system where the microscale growth of fungal mycelium is structured by permanent knitted textile formwork to support macroscale biofabrication. The outcome is the ability to grow biohybrid textile architecture from a composite of mycelium, wool, sawdust, and cellulose fibres, sourced from local industrial waste streams.

Scott, J., Bridgens, B., Ozkan, D., & Kaiser, R. (2024). The living room: new expressions of biohybrid textile architecture. In P. Ayres, M. R. Thomsen, B. Sheil, & M. Skavara (Eds.), Fabricate 2024 (pp. 32-39). UCL Press.

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11374766.8

Adaptability of space habitats using the Rhythmic Buildings strategy

Ben Bridgens — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 08:16:48 +0000

Space habitats, facing extreme conditions in space and on other planetary bodies, should have redundancy and versatility. There are many adaptability strategies for terrestrial habitats but none of these strategies were developed to work in the extreme conditions of outer space. This paper proposes application of a novel adaptability strategy, the Rhythmic Buildings strategy, which aims to develop buildings that adapt to the rhythms of the building’s context (frequency, speed, and intensity of changes occurring on the case study location).

van Ellen, L., Bridgens, B., Burford, N., Crown, M., & Heidrich, O. (2023). Adaptability of space habitats using the Rhythmic Buildings strategy. Acta Astronautica,211, 764-780.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.06.045

The Living Room: Knitting as a Strategy to Redefine the Architectural Possibilities of Mycelium Biofabrication in the Built Environment

Ben Bridgens — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 08:13:45 +0000

The Living Room is a mycelium-knit biohybrid architecture that consists of an exposed knitted formwork on the interior and a smooth mycelium plaster on the exterior, creating a monolithic 4m diameter, freestanding structure. The aim of The Living Room is to develop a complex architectural form with doubly-curved surfaces; exploiting the unique properties of a composite system that brings together flexible, shaped, 3D knitted formwork, with mycocrete, a bespoke mycelium paste formulated for use with textile scaffolds.

Scott, J., Bridgens, B., Kaiser, R., Ozkan, D., & Agraviador, A. (2023). The Living Room: Knitting as a Strategy to Redefine the Architectural Possibilities of Mycelium Biofabrication in the Built Environment. ACADIA 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene, Denver.

Biological, physical and morphological factors for the programming of a novel microbial hygromorphic material

Ben Bridgens — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 08:10:39 +0000

This paper explores biological, physical, and morphological factors influencing the programming of a novel microbial-based smart hybrid material which is responsive to changes in environmental humidity. The bacterial spore-based hygromorph biocomposites (HBCs) were developed and aggregated to enable them to open and close apertures and demonstrate programmable responses to changes in environmental humidity.

Birch, E. R. P., Bridgens, B., Zhang, M., & Dade-Robertson, M. (2024). Biological, physical and morphological factors for the programming of a novel microbial hygromorphic material. Bioinspir Biomim.

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ad3a4d

BioKnit: development of mycelium paste for use with permanent textile formwork

Ben Bridgens — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 20:44:39 +0000

This paper presents significant advances in mycelium biofabrication using permanent knitted textile formwork and a new substrate formulation to dramatically improve the mechanical properties of mycelium-textile biocomposites suitable for large-scale components for use in construction.
The paper outlines the biofabrication process, detailing the composition of mycocrete, a viscous mycelium substrate developed for use with permanent knitted formwork, and the injection process required to regulate the lling of slender tubes of fabric with mycocrete.

Kaiser, R., Bridgens, B., Elsacker, E., & Scott, J. (2023). BioKnit: development of mycelium paste for use with permanent textile formwork. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 11.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1229693

Living Morphogensis

Ben Bridgens — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 20:38:11 +0000

Bacteria-Driven Form Exploration through Aeration Scaffolding

This research investigates an approach into co-designing with cellulose-producing bacteria to explore its morphogenetic tendencies in order to create intricate 3-dimensional forms. This paper looks at a fabrication approach that diverges from conventional BC material production towards form-finding by creating explorative methods that guide BC formation through the control of airflow. We present an experimental workflow with a bacteria and yeast that employs a strategy to identify parameters for guiding the morphological development of BC.

Hoenerloh, A., Arnardottir, T., Bridgens, B., & Dade-Robertson, M. (2023). Living Morphogenesis: Bacteria-Driven Form Exploration through Aeration ScaffoldingACADIA 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene

HBBE at Edinburgh Science Festival

HBBE Editor — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 09:22:18 +0000

Visit our work at Edinburgh Science Festival this year!

HBBE is present with several exhibition pieces in the main atrium of the National Museums Scotland on Chambers Street in Edinburgh.

HBBE is showcasing parts of ‘BioMateriOME’, a Biomaterial Library exhibiting work across several HBBE research groups as Living Construction, Living Textiles and Microbial Environments.

The library contains samples such as Bacterial Cellulose, Microbially induced Calcite (MICP) and Mycelium Composite Samples.

The Living Textiles Research Group additionally displays the ‘Growing Room’ Project, a three-metre high architecture composed of fungal mycelium and knitted British wool. The Group also presented insights into the design and biofabrication process of the specifically developed piece at the Growing Home After Hours Event (04.04.24)

The festival is on until 14th April. #EdiSciFest

HBBE launches Living Textiles as 5th Research Theme

HBBE Editor — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 09:17:58 +0000

The Living Textiles Research Group has been established as a core research theme for the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment. Living Textiles, led by Jane Scott, positions textiles as a critical biofabrication strategy for the development of new materials and construction methods, transforming biomaterials and biosynthesised polymers into environmentally responsive, and programmable systems that operate at the scale of the built environment.

“It is fantastic achievement for Living Textiles to become a research theme in HBBE. Textiles offer such diverse and scalable solutions for biotech; we are growing architectures with wool and mycelium as well as developing a new generation of textile fibres and filaments to address circularity and sustainability in the textile industry.” Dr Jane Scott

Current work by Living Textiles includes The Growing Room on display at Edinburgh Science Festival, 30th March – 14th April 2024 and BioKnit Arch at the London Design Museum until the end of August 2024.

Find more information about the research theme at Living Textiles.

Living Nanofibre Pavilion

HBBE Editor — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:06:14 +0000

In January 2024 Living Textiles welcomed visiting researcher Jan Konicek from FUA Technical University Liberec to The Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment. Working alongside Newcastle University PhD researcher Phoebe Lewis, Jan’s innovative non-woven technology was used to explore new architectural surfaces and develop the Living Nanofiber Pavilion.

The technology creates an innovative non-woven membrane that can be directly applied to to a supporting sub-structure. For this research the technology is sprayed to create a surface membrane coating 3D woven plant-based cocoon as the central form of the Nanofiber Pavilion. In the next stage of the project the membrane acts as scaffold for mycelium growth, transforming the multi layered structure into a novel biocomposite.