PROTOTYPING ARCHITECTURE
Author and Editor: Michael Stacey
"The Protocell Mesh project integrates first-generation prototypes that include aluminium meshwork canopy scaffolding and a suspended protocell carbon-capture filter array. The scaffold that supports the Protocell Mesh installation is a resilient, self-bracing meshwork waffle. Curving and expanding, the mesh creates a flexible hyperbolic grid-shell. The meshwork is composed of flexible, lightweight chevron-shaped linking components. The chevrons interconnect to create a pleated diagonal grid surface. Bifurcations in mesh units create tapering and swelling forms that extend out from the diagrid membrane, reaching upward and downward to create suspension and mounting points. Floating radial compression frames provide local stiffening and gather forces for anchorage. Arrayed protocells are arranged within a suspended filter that lines this scaffold. The array acts as a diffuse filter that incrementally processes carbon dioxide from the occupied atmosphere and converts it into inert calcium carbonate. The process operates in much the same way that limestone is deposited by living
marine environments."
Author and Editor: Michael Stacey
Riverside Architectural Press, 2013
ISBN 978-1-926724-25-6
(pbk) 244 pp 218 x 278 mm
