Zaha Hadid joins EU-backed ‘smart fabrics’ research team
A European Union funded research project has launched that will see Zaha Hadid Architects and a consortium of other partners look into the potential of interactive ‘smart fabrics’.
The aim of the Creatif project is to design and develop software and a smart fabric printer that can print electronic materials containing inks with interactive capabilities.
Hadid will work with British firm Base Structures and Danish group Diffus Design and collaborate with four technical and research based partners: Ardeje, France; Grafixoft, Belgium; Institut für Textiltechnik Aachen, Germany and the University of Southampton.
One of the aims of the project is to remove barriers of entry to the field of smart fabrics by reducing the complexity of the processes involved and the steepness of the technological learning curve.
The Creatif team will use its new tools to produce three smart fabric prototypes demonstrating interactive light emission, interactive colour change and sound surfaces.
These prototypes will be demonstrated as an interactive blind in 2015, which looks like a screen but has been printed with fully formed conductive paths.
In 2016 an exhibition stand will be delivered. It will show how traditional fabrics and smart fabrics can be integrated with teh new tehnology.
The challenge, set as part of the EU’s Information and Communications Technology Programme, is part of a drive to encourage cross-sector collaboration and produce more powerful interactive tools for the creative industries.
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