In a new recent research, we have been looking into the internal 3D geometrical growth of bamboo. We have focused on a very fast growing breed called ‘phyllostachys’ that, depending on a variety of parameters, can grow extremely fast and sense its environment to correct and reinforce itself while growing. In collaboration with macro-molecular and bio material scientists at KIT- Kyoto institute of technology D-Lab in Japan, we have translated the microscopic bamboo’s internal structure into producible 3D structures. Scaled-up by 3000% we can now study the natural geometrical growth patterns of the bamboo, both in terms of its natural structural porosity and its geometrical growth intelligence. The bamboo is ‘learning as it is growing’. This means that its structural internal 3D morphology is constantly changing and adapting to new environmental conditions, growing differently from section to section based upon a kind of inherited intelligence and sensory systems.
The new STEM 45° objects collection, were designed using microscopically 3D translated bamboo micro-structure geometry and informed by Assa’s personal aesthetic and a line of 3D algorithms that are laying the foundations for a new type of autonomous design strategy. It is a new growth algorithm that is and branching at a 45° and evolving within the machines and material constraints. The project opens the discussion around future industrial design and architecture processes at both large and small scales, where automated processes will be fed by a combination of human and biological intelligence, designing a new type of tool-path for the robots to follow.
With thanks to professors Julia Cassim, Dr Yoko Okahisa and Dr Yukihiro Nishikawa of KIT and D-Lab, Kyoto Japan 2017 for the bio material science and microscopic data processing