Laia Mogas-Soldevila

University of Pennsylvania | UP · Department of Architecture

Motivated by the need to harness the properties of renewable and biodegradable polymers for the design and manufacturing of multi-scale structures with complex geometries, we have employed our additive manufacturing platform that leverages molecular self-assembly for the production of metre-scale structures characterized by complex geometries and h...

CanoPIT proposes a canopy structure composed of fruit-based biomaterials that transforms unavoidable food waste from stone fruits into bio-based printable blends outputting strong, healthy, biodegradable, and functional large-scale surfaces. The interdisciplinary approach combines biomaterial blend development and hierarchical additive fabrication...

The authors of this research investigate the possibility of fabricating shell-based cellular structures using knitting techniques. Shellular Funicular Structures are two-manifold single-layer structures that can be designed in the context of graphic statics. These are efficient compression/tension-only structures that have been designed for a certa...

Cell-free protein expression systems are here combined with 3D-printed structures to study the challenges and opportunities as biofabrication enters the spaces of architecture and design. Harnessing large-scale additive manufacturing of biological materials, we examined the addition of cell-free protein expression systems (“TXTL” i.e., biological t...

This chapter reviews emergent work in large-scale interactive building skins that use biological materials derived from abundant, renewable, biodegradable sources like silk, algae, wood, cellulose, chitin, fungi, or bacteria. They are surveyed as new interactive systems for material-driven environmental sensing and response within the outer layer o...

Over the past few decades, Bombyx mori silk fibroin has become a ubiquitous material for applications ranging from biomedical devices to optics, electronics, and sensing, while also showing potential in the food supply chain and being re-engineered as a functional material for architecture and design-related applications. Its widespread use derives...

Most of the housing materials used today such as glass, metal, ceramics, and concrete use enormous amounts of energy, during extraction, processing, and recycling. Projects that are solar-powered, net-positive, waste-processing, and fossil-fuel free prepare the field for the advent of biomaterials in building construction. Modern companies are work...

Biomaterial composites based on reformulated silk protein offer new routes for tough and strong, environmentally friendly leather-like materials. We present here silk-based biomaterial formulations that are scalable, amenable to digital manufacturing, thus enabling a wide variety of formats, and offering new pathways to sustainable production. Perf...

In article number 2001258, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto and co‐workers present a complementary approach to wearable sensing, wherein they use bioactive biomaterial‐based inks to print and stabilize deterministic patterns of biochemical reporters with high resolution. They develop a T‐shirt based on a colorimetric pattern as an example of a large‐area weara...

Wearable interfaces are central to multiple healthcare and wellness strategies encompassing diet and nutrition, personalized health monitoring, and performance optimization. Specifically, the advent of flexible electronic formats coupled with microfluidic interfaces has resulted in sophisticated conformal devices for biofluid sampling and quantific...

Distributed forms of construction in the biological world are characterized by the ability to generate complex adaptable large-scale structures with tunable properties. In contrast, state-of-the-art digital construction platforms in design lack such abilities. This is mainly due to limitations associated with fixed and inflexible gantry sizes as we...

In nature, water assembles basic molecules into complex multi-functional structures with nano-to-macro property variation. Such processes generally consume low amounts of energy, produce little to no waste, and take advantage of ambient conditions. In contrast digital manufacturing platforms are generally characterized as uni-functional, wasteful,...

Structural hierarchy and material organization in design are traditionally achieved by combining discrete homogeneous parts into functional assemblies where the shape or surface is the determining factor in achieving function. In contrast, biological structures express higher levels of functionality on a finer scale through volumetric cellular cons...

Conventional digital design tools display little integration between shape formation and materialization resulting in disassociation between shape and matter. Contrarily, in the natural world shape and matter are structured through growth and adaptation, resulting in highly tunable and hierarchically structured constructs, which exhibit excellent m...

Additive manufacturing (AM) of regenerated biomaterials is in its infancy despite the urgent need for alternatives to fuel-based products and in spite of the exceptional mechanical properties, availability, and biodegradability associated with water-based natural polymers. This study presents water-based robotic fabrication as a design approach and...

Many exoskeletons exhibit multifunctional performance by combining protection from rigid ceramic components with flexibility through articulated interfaces. Structure-to-function relationships of these natural bioarmors have been studied extensively, and initial development of structural (load-bearing) bioinspired armor materials, most often nacre-...

This thesis is about man and machine roles in the early conception of designs where it investigates computational methods that support creativity and surprise. It discusses the relationship between human and digital medium in the enterprise of Computer-Aided Design', and Self-Made Computation to empower the designer as driver of digital processes t...