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Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group. Vespers. 2018. Series 1, Mask 5,
front view. Designed for The New Ancient Collection. Curated and 3-D printed
by Stratasys. Photo: Yoram Reshef

fabrication at the architectural scale, which she initiated in almost as a biological printer. Unlike accepted procedures in
2013. Harnessing silkworms’ ability to generate a 3-D cocoon the silk industry, this project demonstrated a novel process
out of a single silk thread, Oxman and her research group by which silk cocoons are not boiled and the silkworms
created the overall geometry of a geodesic dome by using metamorphose normally while pupating, hatching, and laying
an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across eggs, enabling the construction of additional pavilions. Seven
patches providing various degrees of density. A swarm of years later, Oxman illustrates how the dynamics of this small
6,500 silkworms were positioned at the bottom rim of the and unique insect can influence rather than simply add
robotically manufactured initial structure, composed of to architectural forms, drawing from observations of their
non-woven silk patches, and they were tasked with filling behavior to create a structure that guides both movement
the gaps. The overall density variation of the final structure and silk deposition. In other words, the silkworm can act not
was informed by the silkworm itself, which was deployed only as construction worker, but as architect.

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