The design research was focused on inflation and its effect on material behavior. Working with air inflation as an external stimuli, several materials were tested and filtered (silicone, liquid rubber, latex…).
Silicone is the main component which could act as a soft inner structure or could be coated on other material layers.Throughout the initial phase of the research, we studied different movement behaviors (bending, expansion, curling…) of pneumatic silicone molds with inner pattern of air gaps. Then, we based our interest to explore how inflation could reveal textures on a composite layer material system and how would that lead to specific architectural applications. Our objective is to create a pneumatic system that would respond to external forces like wind and act in the same time as a soft envelope that would create a micro climate surrounding the building space.
Material tests were done on soft layers of silicone composites that would be bumbed when inflated due to different material expansion properties. These dimples could be part of an envelope plugged on high rise towers and reduce wind drags.
