BioVellum researches the use of biological polymers as a construction material for temporary, lightweight, semi-living architectures. A series of vegetable-based polymer investigations explores a multi-material condition allowing for functionally graded variability in stiffness, transparency, and ephemerality. Manual fabrication using spray-based application onto inflatable skins provides a proof of concept for a computational workflow based on multifactored physical and environmental conditions.

The project explores extended position-based dynamics simulations to define habitable conditions using rigid body frameworks as permanent – yet reconfigurable – structural scaffolds. These structural scaffolds control inflation and fabrication of multi-layered biopolymer membranes. In addition, the building will have a stable degradation cycle, and transparency and lighting will also achieve gradient changes, making the building’s function flexible and changeable. This project proposes a design for the Tokyo Olympics Media Center as an example to explore the semi-permanent system. This building system ideally uses the same building modules (structure, frame) to adapt to different architectural forms. The structure of the media centre, which is realised with inflated bioplastics, is supported and shaped by the metal frame armature. After the Olympic Games, the programme manager would remove the basic modules of the media centre, and would reserve the frame for the next buildings.