CRC 141 has started

The DFG (German Research Foundation) decided on May 15th 2014 to financially support the transregional Collaborative Research Centre TRR 141 ‘Biological Design and Integrative Structures’ with a grant of 9.3 million Euro for four years. The initiative focuses on the analysis and abstraction of design and construction principles in nature and their implementation in architecture.

The projects carried out at the University of Freiburg are a central pillar of the newly founded interdisciplinary "Freiburg Centre for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT)". Spokesperson at the University of Freiburg is the biologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck.

The following projects are carried out since 1st October 2014:

• Plants and animals as source of inspiration for energy dissipation in load bearing systems and facades (project description)
• Inspired by plants and animals: actively actuated rod-shaped structures exhibiting adaptive sttiffness and joint-free continuous kinematics (project description)
• Kinematics of planar, curved and corrugated plant surfaces as concept generators for deployable systems in architecture (project description)
• Branching and axes in selected plant species as concept generators for high load-bearing joints of branched building structures (project description)
• Continuous fused deposition modelling of architectural envelopes based on the shell formation of molluscs (project description)
• Scaling of properties of highly porous biological and biomimetic constructions (project description)

Beginning of 2015 the website of CRC/TRR 141 with descriptions of all research projects, members and news is online.

Press Kit University of Freiburg (German)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck
Director of the Botanic Garden
University of Freiburg
phone: +49 761 203 2875
Email: thomas.speck@biologie.uni-freiburg.de