These bionic sun blinds, inspired by the Bird of Paradise flower, won the innovation award at Techtextil. This moving structure without any interconnections makes use of textiles in an ingenious way. The concept is so cool and I could see it used for interior window coverings. It might be the solution to “cordless” and cord safety issues, not to mention how awesome would it be to turn your window coverings into a media screen.
They already found an impressive application in the Thematic Pavilion at the EXPO 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea. The design of the pavilion was done by Soma Architecture, Vienna. The Thematic Pavilion is one of the main buildings of 2012 Yeosu Expo. One of its main features is the 140m long and 13m high facade with 108 operable lamellas that can be adjusted to requirements of light and building physics. Additionally, the kinetic facade allows to run special choreography and acts as a movable eye catcher and media screen.
The Flectofin(R) is a ‘hinge-less flapping mechanism inspired by nature’. It was developed by a team of 3 German universities: ITKE – University of Stuttgart, PBG – Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and ITV – Denkendorf. It was inspired by a deformation principle found in the Bird-Of-Paradise flower . Its valvular pollination mechanism comprises a non-autonomous plant movement which was investigated with mechanical tests and simulated to understand the basic underlying principles for functioning.
The inventor, Julian Lienhard, will tell us how these bionic blinds, create new possibilities for textiles in architecture at MoOd 2012. Can’t wait to hear what he has to say.
