Advanced 3D Textile Applications for the Building Envelope

Within the field of textile construction, textiles are traditionally used either as decorative elements in interior design or as flat textiles in tensile-stressed lightweight constructions (roofs, temporary buildings, etc.). Technical textiles made of glass or carbon fibers are now also used as steel substitutes in concrete construction. There, flat textiles are also used as lost formwork or shaping semi-finished products. Applications for 3D textiles and in particular spacer textiles have so far only been investigated as part of multilayer constructions in combination with other elements. Otherwise, there are no studies for their application potential in the roof and wall areas of buildings and as a starting structure for opaque and translucent components. The two research projects presented here, "ReFaTex" (adjustable spacer fabrics for solar shading devices) and "ge3TEX" (warp-knitted, woven and foamed spacer fabrics) illustrate for one thing the possibilities for using 3D textiles for the construction of movable and translucently variable solar protection elements in the building envelope. Otherwise they show how 3D textiles in combination with foamed materials can be transformed into opaque, lightweight, self-supporting and insulated wall and ceiling components in the building envelope. Both projects are designed experimentally and iteratively. The results are compared in a qualifying manner, the aim being not to quantify individual measured variables but to explore the development potential of textile construction for sustainable future components and to realize the first demonstrators. In the ReFaTex project, 1:1 demonstrators with different movement mechanisms for controlling the incidence of light were realized. In the ge3TEX project, 1:1 demonstrators made of three different textile and foam materials were added to form new single-origin composite components for ceiling elements. Both projects show the great application potential for 3D textiles in the construction industry.