6,500 Silkworms Build Giant Floating Silky Dome

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The Silk Pavilion by MIT media lab ‘explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales’. To create this, The Mediated Matter research group first build a primary structure consisting of 26 polygonal panels, using a CNC machine. Then the 6,500 silkworms are placed at the bottom and spin non-woven silk patches to reinforce the gaps across the structure. The geometry of the base structure was created using an algorithm, which was influenced by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3-dimensional cocoon. (Via)