WEAVING WEEDS

Weaving Weeds

Virginia Tech ICAT Research Grant
2024

DESCRIPTION

Weaving Weeds is an interdisciplinary team of graduate students developing biomaterials essential for reducing the environmental impact of industries related to building materials, packaging, and textiles. Using 3D modeling software such as Rhino+Grasshopper, and fabrication technologies such as CNC milling and laser cutting, we are developing mold systems for casting plant roots into useable fabrics and architectural elements.

This biofabrication process starts with the sensing intelligence of plant roots and ends with a durable structural material that preserves and supports plant life. By focusing on care and moving beyond classification, we move towards a relationship with invasive plants that goes beyond extermination. Because the mobile, sensing root structures of plants are primarily subterranean and unseen, there is a misconception of plants as passive, fixed beings available for extraction. In opposition to this extractive view, Weaving Weeds identifies and celebrates the possibilities of learning from plants’ intelligent root structures to build novel, adaptive, and regenerative materials.

Molds were designed using traditional 3D drafting techniques in Rhino in addition to parametric grasshopper script, and then exported, sliced, and FDM 3D printed using PLA. Careful attention was paid to the minimum ‘resolution’ of the root structures, as well as to avoid drafting overhangs into the formwork - the result: molds that can be reused near-infinitely with proper preparation and cleaning.

The mold patterns we chose were inspired by patterns found in nature - from honeycombs, to the cracking of dried mud in the sun, to voronoi cell-division patterns based on delaunay triangulation.

The molds were then lined with a fine meshing material and filled over top with germinated wheat berries. over the course of three weeks, the germinated wheat berries were kept moist and in direct sunlight, where their root structures gradually filled in the negative space of the positive mold. The roots entangled with(in) each other, networking to create a durable, fabric-like material that held its shape and maintained its integrity. The root/shoot assembly was then removed from the molds, turned upside down, and kept in a cool, dark, dry place for another three weeks.

Researchers
Chelsea Brighton-Smith, Masters in Landscape Architecture
Ben Hornyak, MFA Creative Technologies
Lois Nguyen, PhD Science and Technology Studies
Braden Perryman, MFA Creative Technologies
Thomas-Mark Peterson, Masters in Architecture
Maggie Webb, PhD Engineering Education / MS Civil Engineering

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