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Autumn Show 2025
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![The final prototype makes tangible the material logic developed and scaled throughout the project. Pigmented structural lines formed through enzymatic crosslinking interweave with a pliable membrane.]()
![The composite is envisioned here as an adaptive shading system. Multi-material logic enables light modulation and seamless structural articulation.]()
![]()
![A close-up of Alula reveals the membrane’s casting of intricate shadows. This performative quality of the adaptive skin, converges both aesthetics and function.]()
![Through biocatalysis, enzymes take the role of builders: crosslinking molecules, darkening surfaces, and guiding the material toward form. This biologically driven process allows us to tune stiffness, colour, and flexibility.]()
![The use of enzymes eliminates the need for toxic chemical catalysts. They create molecular crosslinking under ambient conditions, offering an alternative sustainable fabrication practice.]()
![Each sample in the material library captures a different moment in the evolution of the composite, from formulation tests and enzymatic curing to extrusion trials and early prototypes.]()
![]()
![A dual-material system: the membrane behaves as connective tissue, light and pliable; the structure, a stiff, load-bearing exoskeleton, darkened through enzymatic action.]()
![Spanning over two meters, Alula embodies the project’s central material system, a fusion of rigid, melanated structural veins and translucent, flexible membranes.]()
![Finite element simulations guide massing studies, accumulating material only where necessary. Seamlessly balancing strength and lightness; skin with frame.]()
![Exploded diagram showing tapered and layered structure with an embbeded metal insert anchoring the piece. Alula bridges novel biofabrication and integration with conventional materials.]()
![Alula: fabricated using a KUKA KR45 robotic arm equipped with a pneumatic extrusion system. Differential line toolpaths guided non-planar material deposition over several days.]()
![From lab experiment to tectonic fragment, the prototype embodies the project’s ambition, offering a tangible vision of biologically responsive materials within architecture.]()
Scalar Thresholds
Project details
Programme
Year
2
Team Name
Scalar Thresholds
Scalar Thresholds uses multi-material bio-based composites to explore challenges with the integration of biomaterials in the built environment. Design intuition, scientific method, and engineering rigour merged into a shared language that drives our development of responsive tectonic systems, using additive manufacturing and self-pigmented bio-composites. The novel composites leverage biological catalysts (bacterial and fungal enzymes) to enhance durability, scalability, and versatility of biomaterials structures. The resulting fused assemblies interweave melanated structural venations with a translucent, flexible membrane, yielding a materially expressive and functionally adaptive system. Rooted in hands-on experimentation, our practice pushes living materials toward new forms of architectural expression entwining structure and biological metabolism.
Students
- Basil Frost Year 2
- Kayan Patel Year 2
- Robin Kwon Year 1
01
Purpose
Alula, the First Biocatalytic Architectural Fragment
The final prototype makes tangible the material logic developed and scaled throughout the project. Pigmented structural lines formed through enzymatic crosslinking interweave with a pliable membrane.
Toward Scalable Biomaterial Systems
The composite is envisioned here as an adaptive shading system. Multi-material logic enables light modulation and seamless structural articulation.
Function Through Pattern
A close-up of Alula reveals the membrane’s casting of intricate shadows. This performative quality of the adaptive skin, converges both aesthetics and function.
02
Creation
Biocatalytic Architecture
Through biocatalysis, enzymes take the role of builders: crosslinking molecules, darkening surfaces, and guiding the material toward form. This biologically driven process allows us to tune stiffness, colour, and flexibility.
Enzymes as a Replacement for Toxic Chemicals
The use of enzymes eliminates the need for toxic chemical catalysts. They create molecular crosslinking under ambient conditions, offering an alternative sustainable fabrication practice.
Material Library
Each sample in the material library captures a different moment in the evolution of the composite, from formulation tests and enzymatic curing to extrusion trials and early prototypes.
Winging It
Winging It
Merging biomimetic materials and geometries with additive printing. Layered venation, with each path responds to structural hierarchies inspired by insect anatomy.
Membrane and Structure
A dual-material system: the membrane behaves as connective tissue, light and pliable; the structure, a stiff, load-bearing exoskeleton, darkened through enzymatic action.
03
Fabrication
Alula, a Demonstrator for Biocatalytic Fabrication
Spanning over two meters, Alula embodies the project’s central material system, a fusion of rigid, melanated structural veins and translucent, flexible membranes.
Massing Studies
Finite element simulations guide massing studies, accumulating material only where necessary. Seamlessly balancing strength and lightness; skin with frame.
Layered Logic
Exploded diagram showing tapered and layered structure with an embbeded metal insert anchoring the piece. Alula bridges novel biofabrication and integration with conventional materials.
Large-Scale Biocatalytic Fabrication
Alula: fabricated using a KUKA KR45 robotic arm equipped with a pneumatic extrusion system. Differential line toolpaths guided non-planar material deposition over several days.
Scalar Thresholds
From lab experiment to tectonic fragment, the prototype embodies the project’s ambition, offering a tangible vision of biologically responsive materials within architecture.
The Bartlett
Autumn Show 2025
23 September – 5 October
Autumn Show 2025
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