FUNGUS MESH: Non-woven Self-supporting Assemblies

This study aims to develop the application and exploration of digital manufacturing technology in the design of textile composite materials in the digital fabrication. The inspiration for this study comes from the folds of mushrooms and resulting caps. In nature, many organisms grow flexible bodies as structural systems instead of relying on hard bones. This raises the question of whether soft textile materials can also have the potential to serve as structural support materials. Research is divided into three parts. The first part aims to understand the application of non-woven fabrics in the construction field, and examine the manufacturing and reprocessing methods of composite materials. The second part aims to establish the logic of form finding and shape optimization. The third part is the design and manufacturing stage. This research not only establishes a digital fabrication work-flow based on composite fabric materials but also develops a large-scale selfsupporting structure as a verification of this process.