ASIA DESIGNER COMMUNICATION PLATFORM

The Texoversum School of Textiles at Reutlingen University is a teaching, research, and innovation center. The new Texoversum building is part of a wider university campus expansion plan and features a highly expressive, cutting-edge woven facade. A collaboration between Munich-based architectural practice Allmannwappner, Frankfurt-based architectural practice Menges Scheffler Architekten, and Stuttgart-based structural engineers Jan Knippers Ingenieure, Texoversum is the first building of its kind with a facade of woven carbon and glass fiber tiles. The remarkable structure places textiles in the vanguard of technological development.

The design theme of Texoversum School of Textiles is represented through its singular woven facade and the internal interweaving of its varied functions. For the firms involved in the building’s design and construction, “the architectural concept is based on a multifaceted examination of the topic of textile architecture.” Added to this, Texoversum “stands as a symbol of the future potential of innovative fiber-based materials and textile techniques.” The truly unique carbon and glass fiber facade is created using a robotic winding process. Each individual tile is tailor-made and can be adjusted according to its functional requirement. Tiles are designed on the basis of five templates and their layout follows the path of the sun. A staggered arrangement works to maximize views.

【 Creating a woven carbon and glass fiber tile facade 】
Professor Achim Menges is director at Menges Scheffler Architekten and the founding director of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart. Menges is an expert in the development of integrative design at the intersection of computational design methods, robotic manufacturing and construction, and advanced material and building systems. The specialist behind the design of Texoversum’s woven facade, Menges explains the process for creating the carbon and glass fiber tiles:

“The building components are produced by Robotic Coreless Filament Winding (RCFW), a novel additive manufacturing approach pioneered and developed at the University of Stuttgart. Fibrous filaments are freely placed between two rotating winding scaffolds by a robot. During this process, the predefined shape of the building component emerges from the interaction of the filaments, eliminating the need for any mold or core (RCFW is a technology that eliminates formwork). This allows for bespoke form and individual fiber layup for each component without any economic disadvantage.”

“RCFW is a unique process because it does not require any molds and does not produce any offcuts,” says Menges. “Every last inch of the filament material was used.” The facade elements were produced by FibR GmbH, a company that emerged as a result of the research at the University of Stuttgart.

The facade is aesthetically pleasing with a design that is symbolic of the textile industry. The use of a simple black and white color combination is both classic and striking. “During manufacturing, a lattice of white glass fibers is generated, onto which the black carbon fibers are placed where they are structurally needed,” explains Menges. “This results in highly load-adapted components with a particularly distinct architectural appearance.”

【 A self-supporting facade 】
In his architectural practice, Menges adopts an interdisciplinary approach that includes collaboration with structural engineering, computer science, material science, and social science. “The facade is an integral part of the architectural expression of the building as a textile research and innovation centre, as well as the project’s environmental engineering and related indoor comfort strategy,” he says. “It constitutes the external sun protection of the building, which has to fulfill stringent shading requirements in compliance with the German building code. In addition, the self-supporting facade frames the view towards the surrounding landscape.”

Explaining the self-supporting nature of the facade tiles, Menges says: “The fiber elements harden after the winding process, resulting in structural composite building components that are anchored on the concrete slabs of the building. The self-supporting fiber elements provide the structural balustrades for the balconies.” In terms of construction, Menges continues: “The facade was installed element by element with straightforward construction equipment such as cherry pickers. Owing to the low weight of each element — less than 30 kilograms (66 pounds) — and their high accuracy, installation was very easy.”

【 Facade openings 】
The facade tiles are based on five predetermined templates, their collective composition creating the structure’s distinctive appearance — with an almost permeable quality, the tiles provide unobstructed views to the outside. Menges explains: “The central openings emerge in the robotic winding process — they are finely tuned to provide unobstructed and framed views by considering the eye-level of both people sitting and standing."

"At the same time, distribution of the openings, as well as the density of the fiber mesh, are designed to meet shading requirements based on comprehensive simulations. For example, the response to shading requirements is evident in the small openings and high fiber density at the corners of the building, because the corner rooms are exposed to greater solar loads. The carbon fiber density and orientation is designed to meet both local and global structural requirements. A computational design method enabled us to negotiate these architectural, structural, and environmental performance criteria, having them converge in five fiber element types.”

【 “A great challenge” 】
In a building that is a first of its kind, Menges and his team had to ensure it was fit for purpose, thus presenting them with a challenge. “The transfer from our academic research at the University of Stuttgart to practice was of course a great challenge,” he says. “We had already successfully built several research models before, but for Texoversum, a permanent building, we had to meet the full requirements of the German building authorities for the first time. For this, extensive tests had to be carried out to prove the long-term creep behavior, weather resistance, fire resistance, and so on.”

“The distinctive facade design is a result of the deep integration and careful negotiation of intended architectural expression, the traces of the unique materialization process, and the specific materiality of the filaments. Together, this results in the facade’s intricate textile characteristics, the related modulation of light and shadow, and the required structural and building physics performance,” says Menges. “As the design, engineering, and fabrication processes are fully digital, we were then able to collaborate closely with the consulting engineers on the project from the outset. We shared design and simulation models with an increasing level of detail, so steering our design intent by iteratively integrating structural engineering, building physics, and robotic fabrication in the project’s advancement.”

【 Texoversum’s inner structure 】
The theme of permeability and connectedness continues on the inside of Texoversum. With a gross floor area of 4,112 square meters (44,261 square feet), Texoversum’s interior design and construction consists of an open, transparent split-level layout. Stories are staggered at half-level intervals and “woven together visually” in the atrium. The building also has a roomy roof terrace.

The clean industrial spaces throughout are framed by the woven facade, its carefully positioned openings offering views to the outside. These same openings offer people on the outside a glimpse of Texoversum’s inner world.

Südwesttextil, a federation for trade and employment in the textile industry in south-west Germany, donated the Texoversum building to Reutlingen University.

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▪ Source: Archello｜https://archello.com/news/detail-woven-carbon-and-glass-fiber-facade-of-texoversum-school-of-textiles

▪ Words: Gerard McGuickin

▪ Photography Credit: © Brigida Gonzalez, © allmannwappner

Detail: Woven carbon and glass fiber facade of Texoversum School of Textiles