Morphing Structures : An exploration of the fusion between marbled coating and triaxial weave

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a marbled coating applied on a triaxial woven structure. Although both of these techniques are traditionally used for many years, they are nowadays utilized in innovative ways, the marbling being applied on a large variety of surfaces such as wooden floors or ceramics and the triaxial weave being used as a hi-tech material for sports or in the automotive industry and having applications in diverse fields, from art to architecture. Their fusion, however, is a topic that has yet to be thoroughly explored, which makes for the motive of this thesis work, as an opening has been observed for the exploration of the expressive power of their combination. The experimental approach that has been taken towards this exploration will determine how the marbling effect may contribute to the visual expression of the structure. Multiple cycles of experiments have been conducted in an attempt to understand the behaviour of the chosen materials and their combination, the effect that various colour combinations have and the best possible pairings between the elements. The organic marbling combined with the geometric triaxial weave proved to generate the most powerful visual expression and the clearest result out of all the experiments. Thus five experimental textiles were developed in order to illustrate different aspects of this complex relationship, where the marbling would affect the visual expression of the structure by either enhancing or concealing the structural aspect and the contrast between the graphic element and the organic one would be a constant presence throughout the work. This work pushes the boundaries of conventional textile design and through the application of a textile thinking to unconventional materials a different type of expression is born. By mixing a limited amount of variables in multiple ways, a large range of visual effects may be achieved.