The 21st Century's smartest fabrics

摘要

Marie O'Mahony's essay about "smart fabrics" in the design and architecture section of Techno textiles 2: Revolutionary fabrics for fashion and design offers examples of innovative tensile and air-supported structures from around the world and talks about specialist fabrics like the ETFE (ethylene tetrafluroethylene) system used by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners for the biome greenhouses of the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. But missing is any emphasis upon the potential of the fabric medium to multi-task and not only provide shelter and shade, but to actually become an energy source. Photovoltaic (PV) technologies utilizing thin films or coatings applied to fabrics that convert light energy into electrical energy have tremendous potential. By harnessing the earth's most sustainable energy source—the sun—the smartest fabrics of the 21st century will reduce our reliance upon carbon-based fuels.