Bespoke Knitted Textiles for Large-Scale Architectural Projects

Textiles are important materials in modern architectural technology. They enable lightweight shell structures with specific inhomogeneous textures and complicated geometries to be constructed. The traditional method of constructing a bespoke textile composition and geometry includes patterning, sewing, and welding. This is wasteful because it consists of several production stages which significantly increase the time and the cost of production. Meanwhile, modern knitting machines are capable to produce complex, seamless three-dimensional shapes in a fast and waste-free manner. This new technique, under the current study, may be an alternative to 3d-printing in the production of large-scale bespoke shapes. This chapter presents the initial results of the research focused on understanding how different fabric structures influence the perception and characteristics of textiles for large-scale architectural applications and how they can be produced. It starts with an introduction to the topic of knitting technology, concentrating on the automatization of the production of the bespoke inhomogeneous knitted textiles, covers the topics of sustainability and safety of textiles. The chapter includes a case study that investigates the architectural characteristics of knitted textiles on the scale of a wall. It finishes with the analysis of the study and observation of future directions of the research.