VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE. DRYARN® FOR SPACING SPACERS, THE INSTALLATION ON DISPLAY IN THE ITALY PAVILION

Dryarn®, the lightest microfibre in the world, conceived and designed for sportswear, is taking part in the seventeenth Venice Architecture Biennale as part of Mat.Res, the collective project of the Politecnico di Milano’s Material Balance research group, coordinated by Prof. Ingrid Paoletti, which wishes to show advances in research into innovative semi-construction systems for architecture.

In particular, the Dryarn® yarn has been chosen for the outer covering of one of the research projects exhibited in the frame of the Mat.Res installation, Spacing Spacers, on display in the Italy Pavilion until 21 November.

Mat.Res is inspired by a tree, an unmoving living organism with a system of resilient strategies for transforming adversity into vital advantages. It is a 6-metre tall column, hanging from the ceiling and fastened to a wooden platform. In this metaphor the lymphatic vessels of the tree are represented by vertical elements, each of which identifies a research project developed by the Material Balance research group.

Spacing Spacers, one of the 6-metre high columns, is the first prototype of a larger research project that aims to scale up the potential of e-textiles used for fashion design in the architectural context and then to respond to the increasing demand for high acoustic comfort in rooms.

Spacing Spacers proposes to explore the potential arising from knowledge of manufacturing systems and materials acquired in the textile sector to develop interactive architectural mechanisms, such as fabrics that respond to sound, this prototype constituting a first example of such.

Using conductive yarns, a sound sensor can be connected to an array of LED lights that light up based on the level of sound in the space: red when there is noise and blue when there is silence.

The outer covering of Spacing Spacers is made from the microfibre Dryarn® – chosen for its particular strength and its high-tech and innovative characteristics – and consists of two bands of fabric knitted on a rectilinear knitting machine made by Shima Seiki Mfg. Ltd and then put together in the Politecnico di Milano’s Knit Lab.

Shima Seiki Italia S.p.A and Dryarn® have been working together for some time on various clothing and other projects.

Spacing Spacers was developed as part of the doctorate research project of architect Andrea Giglio at Politecnico di Milano (Architecture and Design Department) in conjunction with major textile companies including Aquafil, which makes Dryarn®.