Felt-Concrete Composites in Architectures and Design
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Becker, Mirco
The paper explores the possibilities of a composite of needle-felt fibres and cement-based matrix for designing and fabricating architectural elements. It summarizes the longer standing design-research undertaking in needle-felting as a novel method for creating materially graded objects without the use of formwork. The work is conducted on a design prototype of a chair to emphasise the integrative nature of this material system. This approach allows the study of all aspects from the fabrication process, the function of details, structural behaviour, and user experience. Needle fleeting has a long tradition in arts and craft for manually forming intricate objects such as figurines or applying ornaments to textile objects. The main feature of felt material is that it can bring fibrous material into a stable shape. This process has been digitized by Disney Research proposing needle felting as a way of 3D-printing fibrous material. Becker et al. also proposed a robotic process for robotically 3D-printing felt shapes which form the base for a material composite of felt-fibers and a cement based matrix. Their paper argues for functionally graded architectural elements where the composite of felt and cement can provide for tensile reinforcement, compressive strength, insulation, and different haptic surfaces. Based these methods here a replica of IKEA® Leifarne chair is realized, showcasing a range of felt-concrete composite applications integrated in a single object.
 What I hope to share with my previous presenters is some of the ability to take obscure ideas and build them into existence. I think that is something we all kind of share, but on various levels. So I'm very happy to be in the network from the very beginning. And from the very beginning, I followed an interest in using felt and the techniques of producing felt in the context of architecture and design of some sort. I must say that's only, let's say, one of the interests we follow at the institute, but I'm happy that it kind of stayed with us over the last four or five years, but always on a kind of small scale niche level. So that is not, now I give a full presentation already. Sorry. So needle felting is a technique where you could almost use any fibrous material and you repetitively move a needle with little hooks through that material and that lets the fibers intertwine and form a stronger pack. So there are different ways of felting. There is also wet felting, which only works with certain materials, but we use needle felting. And what we started to envision in the beginning saying felting, needle felting could be used as another way of 3D printing. So rather than having a material that gets extruded and bonds in various ways, either for sintering, chemically and so on, we use the process of needle felting. And initially we just mimic what's been done kind of by hobbyists anyway. We produce forms by needle felting manually. So we say we can actually do any object and they will be fairly stable by using nothing but fibers. But we know fibers, they don't really kind of do a lot of work. They can just do not enough work to support themselves. How to bring that into kind of architecture and design and make them more structural, use them as composites. So that was basically the thesis we started out with saying, how do we use the old technique, the kind of manual technique, the hobbyist technique of felting fibers to turn them into composites. Obviously, there was some work already done before, which we kind of built on the idea that the Disney Research Group proved that felting technique could be used as a 3D printing technique. They did slightly differently than we, they used a threaded material which makes it way more easier to use the notion of slicing a linear process and so on. What we did then as a kind of first kind of proof of using these felted structures as composites just tried all sorts of matrix materials from glue, hairspray, various cement bound materials and so on to infiltrate the matrix, the felt and then got kind of composite. Another path we took saying, if we really want to kind of have a fully integrated and multifunctional approach to that, how do we integrate other mechanical elements into the process and one way we did is saying we can use almost any shape coming from a different process as long as it ends in some sort of a kind of entangled mesh like structure, we can just felt around that and integrate that. There was a student project where they used this kind of 3D printed traditional elements like stairs, windows and so on and you see they have this kind of mesh attention to extension to it and by just putting the felt around that they fully integrate. So for the ISS in 2018, we had a kind of first step at developing a robotic process of producing some shapes with it and it turned out to be kind of really cumbersome once you leave the known process of a kind of linear extrusion and leave the process that Disney laid out with a linear layout of a threat and so on. But that was what we kind of proposed, we say we can produce any sort of shape in felt and we can then infiltrate that shape with a matrix, in this case with UHPC and we can either use elements such as wall sections or elements such as connectors. So and there's possibilities although it's a kind of massive leap to go to such a large scale with this kind of technique which is usually used by hobbyists. So we developed a series of kind of effectors, we use actually hobbyist tool which does a kind of high frequency kind of needle felting and then had one more axis that kind of oscillated and then kind of applied that to the path. So you lay out the material as a fleece and then basically the density in the end of the piece is somehow linear to the number of paths you go over the material. So you can densify the material just by kind of going there more often so it compacts also. There is going to be done a lot of research in this kind of nonlinear process is how it kind of builds up. But what we kind of stated here as a thesis is that in one piece which is kind of wall section here you could have parts that are structurally necessary, they're kind of self-supportive, they can kind of get infiltrated with some sort of cement matrix but you can also include your installation in there. You could also include your finishing layer in there. So it's basically the same composite in different densities and different mixtures that you use with that process. And with this series of tests which was actually the most difficult one getting the right balance between which parts are highly dense fibers and which parts are fairly loose fibers so that enough material can get into the fibers and so on. So we used different materials for that different material mixes and yeah, it is always a balance of having a relatively dense core of felt and then having a rather loose outer layer where you get a good kind of ratio of fibers and matrix in the mix. So going from these kind of abstract examples we had the opportunity to work on one competition where I said what kind of project actually demonstrates the full potential for this kind of functionally grading material going from hard structural self-supportive in the beginning to something that is even super soft like this seating surface. That was only the visual, the idea and then we later the opportunity to actually only the opportunity we did exactly that we kind of build it into existence. I said let's just do it and we took not the Pantone chair but even the cheaper chair we could talk about IKEA chair mainly for the purpose because that also included the kind of mechanical fitting there. So that sits on this little, this little is kind of bolted with free bolts to the shell of the chair. And so that's what we did. We simply just laid out in the beginning really fluffy piece of felt, densified it more and more, kind of put in these ready-made felt spheres and they're not glued in there, it's the same process. You just use the needle again and you connect them. And then we had these kind of 3D printed parts where you see the connector in there. So that was kind of embedded on the underside and then the entire thing was impregnated with concrete. So you get this kind of really thin layer that has some reinforcement in there. And yes, you can put a child on it, see? But you know where the cracks are going to be if one of us sits there. So that's basically the kind of fast forward of what we did over the last kind of four years with this kind of niche interest in using felt concrete. And it is still interesting enough for us to kind of stay with that, although as I kind of just give a few hints of where also the really kind of great challenges are with using that kind of techniques. But it's what kind of is really great for me to see that it needs this kind of balance of doing kind of engineering-like research in a small scale, but then projecting that always in some sort of almost make-believe projects where you kind of convince yourself that that actually has some mileage and is not just some kind of obscure interest. That's my presentation so far. I'm happy to take any questions here, but also to kind of go for the coffee break and then we're back in time here. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. I really love the experimental approach to it and then to see what can emerge from these experiments that might sound a little bit crazy in the beginning. I actually, when I was working on my own PhD, I was always taking K. Luigi Navi as a reference to my work of this functional standpoint concrete. And he, funnily enough, his first patent was called Ferrocementitious Felt, where he really took Felt as the methodological reference to bringing stiffness by or strength through form, what Philip mentioned earlier. Because he was saying that if you have these many layers of intertwined reinforcement that he used for Ferrocement, it actually, and then if you infiltrate it with concrete, you actually do what headmakers get. They have a very soft material and then just by shaping it, it becomes very strong. I really like how this is a very literal translation of this principle here. Also in Etude Van Schoep, we have an artist who is working with Felt and with Wul. And she's using it in combination with clay structures. That's also very promising because she's looking into all these building physical properties and performance of this composite, which might also be interesting to you to have another more sustainable matrix. Yes. Thank you.
 What I hope to share with my previous presenters is some of the ability to take obscure ideas  and build them into existence.  I think that is something we all kind of share, but on various levels.  So I'm very happy to be in the network from the very beginning.  And from the very beginning, I followed an interest in using felt and the techniques  of producing felt in the context of architecture and design of some sort.  I must say that's only, let's say, one of the interests we follow at the institute,  but I'm happy that it kind of stayed with us over the last four or five years, but always  on a kind of small scale niche level.  So that is not, now I give a full presentation already.  Sorry.  So needle felting is a technique where you could almost use any fibrous material and  you repetitively move a needle with little hooks through that material and that lets  the fibers intertwine and form a stronger pack.  So there are different ways of felting.  There is also wet felting, which only works with certain materials, but we use needle  felting.  And what we started to envision in the beginning saying felting, needle felting could be used  as another way of 3D printing.  So rather than having a material that gets extruded and bonds in various ways, either  for sintering, chemically and so on, we use the process of needle felting.  And initially we just mimic what's been done kind of by hobbyists anyway.  We produce forms by needle felting manually.  So we say we can actually do any object and they will be fairly stable by using nothing  but fibers.  But we know fibers, they don't really kind of do a lot of work.  They can just do not enough work to support themselves.  How to bring that into kind of architecture and design and make them more structural,  use them as composites.  So that was basically the thesis we started out with saying, how do we use the old technique,  the kind of manual technique, the hobbyist technique of felting fibers to turn them into  composites.  Obviously, there was some work already done before, which we kind of built on the idea  that the Disney Research Group proved that felting technique could be used as a 3D printing  technique.  They did slightly differently than we, they used a threaded material which makes it way  more easier to use the notion of slicing a linear process and so on.  What we did then as a kind of first kind of proof of using these felted structures as  composites just tried all sorts of matrix materials from glue, hairspray, various cement  bound materials and so on to infiltrate the matrix, the felt and then got kind of composite.  Another path we took saying, if we really want to kind of have a fully integrated and  multifunctional approach to that, how do we integrate other mechanical elements into the  process and one way we did is saying we can use almost any shape coming from a different  process as long as it ends in some sort of a kind of entangled mesh like structure, we  can just felt around that and integrate that.  There was a student project where they used this kind of 3D printed traditional elements  like stairs, windows and so on and you see they have this kind of mesh attention to extension  to it and by just putting the felt around that they fully integrate.  So for the ISS in 2018, we had a kind of first step at developing a robotic process of producing  some shapes with it and it turned out to be kind of really cumbersome once you leave the  known process of a kind of linear extrusion and leave the process that Disney laid out  with a linear layout of a threat and so on.  But that was what we kind of proposed, we say we can produce any sort of shape in felt  and we can then infiltrate that shape with a matrix, in this case with UHPC and we can  either use elements such as wall sections or elements such as connectors.  So and there's possibilities although it's a kind of massive leap to go to such a large  scale with this kind of technique which is usually used by hobbyists.  So we developed a series of kind of effectors, we use actually hobbyist tool which does a  kind of high frequency kind of needle felting and then had one more axis that kind of oscillated  and then kind of applied that to the path.  So you lay out the material as a fleece and then basically the density in the end of the  piece is somehow linear to the number of paths you go over the material.  So you can densify the material just by kind of going there more often so it compacts also.  There is going to be done a lot of research in this kind of nonlinear process is how it  kind of builds up.  But what we kind of stated here as a thesis is that in one piece which is kind of wall  section here you could have parts that are structurally necessary, they're kind of self-supportive,  they can kind of get infiltrated with some sort of cement matrix but you can also include  your installation in there.  You could also include your finishing layer in there.  So it's basically the same composite in different densities and different mixtures that you  use with that process.  And with this series of tests which was actually the most difficult one getting the right balance  between which parts are highly dense fibers and which parts are fairly loose fibers so  that enough material can get into the fibers and so on.  So we used different materials for that different material mixes and yeah, it is always a balance  of having a relatively dense core of felt and then having a rather loose outer layer  where you get a good kind of ratio of fibers and matrix in the mix.  So going from these kind of abstract examples we had the opportunity to work on one competition  where I said what kind of project actually demonstrates the full potential for this kind  of functionally grading material going from hard structural self-supportive in the beginning  to something that is even super soft like this seating surface.  That was only the visual, the idea and then we later the opportunity to actually only  the opportunity we did exactly that we kind of build it into existence.  I said let's just do it and we took not the Pantone chair but even the cheaper chair we  could talk about IKEA chair mainly for the purpose because that also included the kind  of mechanical fitting there.  So that sits on this little, this little is kind of bolted with free bolts to the shell  of the chair.  And so that's what we did.  We simply just laid out in the beginning really fluffy piece of felt, densified it more and  more, kind of put in these ready-made felt spheres and they're not glued in there, it's  the same process.  You just use the needle again and you connect them.  And then we had these kind of 3D printed parts where you see the connector in there.  So that was kind of embedded on the underside and then the entire thing was impregnated  with concrete.  So you get this kind of really thin layer that has some reinforcement in there.  And yes, you can put a child on it, see?  But you know where the cracks are going to be if one of us sits there.  So that's basically the kind of fast forward of what we did over the last kind of four  years with this kind of niche interest in using felt concrete.  And it is still interesting enough for us to kind of stay with that, although as I kind  of just give a few hints of where also the really kind of great challenges are with using  that kind of techniques.  But it's what kind of is really great for me to see that it needs this kind of balance  of doing kind of engineering-like research in a small scale, but then projecting that  always in some sort of almost make-believe projects where you kind of convince yourself  that that actually has some mileage and is not just some kind of obscure interest.  That's my presentation so far.  I'm happy to take any questions here, but also to kind of go for the coffee break and  then we're back in time here.  Thank you.  Thank you, Michael.  I really love the experimental approach to it and then to see what can emerge from these  experiments that might sound a little bit crazy in the beginning.  I actually, when I was working on my own PhD, I was always taking K. Luigi Navi as a reference  to my work of this functional standpoint concrete.  And he, funnily enough, his first patent was called Ferrocementitious Felt, where he really  took Felt as the methodological reference to bringing stiffness by or strength through  form, what Philip mentioned earlier.  Because he was saying that if you have these many layers of intertwined reinforcement that  he used for Ferrocement, it actually, and then if you infiltrate it with concrete, you  actually do what headmakers get.  They have a very soft material and then just by shaping it, it becomes very strong.  I really like how this is a very literal translation of this principle here.  Also in Etude Van Schoep, we have an artist who is working with Felt and with Wul.  And she's using it in combination with clay structures.  That's also very promising because she's looking into all these building physical properties  and performance of this composite, which might also be interesting to you to have another  more sustainable matrix.  Yes.  Thank you.
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