由专筑网Brick，许航，卢荣姝编译

自然在塑造我们的环境方面做得非常好。但是当创新和创造性思维应用到更具可持续性的天然材料时会发生什么？在材料咨询方面领先的材料委员会调查市场上越来越多的高性能、美观的自然产品，以一种不同的方式，来指导辛勤的工作，让新的设计成为可能。

Nature does a pretty good job of shaping our environment. But what happens when innovation and creative thinking are applied to the more sustainable natural materials out there? Leading materials consultancy Materials Council investigates the increasing number of high-performance, high-aesthetic natural products on the market that have, in different ways, been engineered to work harder and to allow new design possibilities.

西班牙制造商Cosentino的Silestone Prexury系列产品使用次等宝石、化石和其它天然材料来创造一种坚固耐用的材料，用于浴室、厨房、客厅的包层。

人们拥有将我们环境中的天然材料设计成可用工具的能力，古往今来这已成为我们的特性。但是当我们在用原材料创造实用产品方面变得日益娴熟，我们也更加意识到这些工艺和我们的活动对环境的潜在破坏力。

我们已经到了一个新时代，我们肩负责任的重担，有控制和塑造我们周围的材料集合到一起创造新的产品和新的制造工艺的先进能力，来生产更少的合成产品和更多的超自然产品。

这里，材料委员会探索各种工程化自然的例子，展示难以置信的控制水平，我们现在能将这种控制运用于我们的环境，并且展示我们如何能受益于使用产品，这些产品不仅仅是更具可持续性，而且以更多的方式实现较少合成。

Man's ability to engineer the natural materials of our environment into usable tools has come to define us throughout the ages. But while we have become increasingly skilled at creating utilitarian products from raw materials, we've also become more aware of the potential destructive ability of these processes and our actions on the environment.
We have now reached an age when this burden of responsibility and our advanced abilities to control and shape the materials around us have come together to create new products and manufacturing processes that are less synthetic creations, and more super-natural.
Here, Materials Council explores various examples of engineered nature that demonstrate the incredible level of control we can now exercise over our environment and how we can benefit from using products that are less synthetic in more ways than simply being more sustainable.

耗时的手工石雕已经很大程度上被技术创新取代。Lithos Design设计事务所将计算机建模和五轴数控加工用于天然石，来制造高精度嵌合的3D石材表面花纹。

物理工程

    减少组成部件里的天然材料，改变它们的组成，以新的方式将它们重新组合，这些是增强材料的审美和技术特点的既定方法。人造石可能是采用这种方法的最常见例子，天然石材如大理石和花岗岩等开采的废料得到再造，用粘合剂粘在一起来创造人造石，有优于天然石的可控外观和性能。

随着新的制造技术、工艺和尖端计算机控制的引进，制造商也已经开发出有成本效益的新方法来设计自然材料的表面。Lithos Design设计事务所将计算机建模和五轴数控加工（CNC）用于天然石，来为室内创造嵌合的3D石材表面、模块化隔墙和覆面镶板。还能用于传统上非常耗时的高技能的石工手雕工作。

Time-intensive stone carving by hand has been displaced to a large extent by technological innovation. Lithos Design employs computer-modelling and 5-axis CNC-machining of natural stone to create precision-tessellated 3D-stone surfaces.
Physical engineering
Reducing natural materials to their constituent elements, altering their make-up, and recombining them in new ways is an established method of enhancing the aesthetic and technical characteristics of a material. Reconstituted stone is perhaps the most common example of this, where waste from the quarrying of natural stones, such as marbles and granites, is reconstructed and held together with a binder to create man-made stones with a controlled appearance and a performance superior to natural stones.
With new manufacturing techniques, processes and the introduction of sophisticated computer control, manufacturers have also developed new and cost effective ways to also engineer the surfaces of natural materials. Lithos Design employ computer-modelling and 5-axis CNC (computer numerically controlled) machining of natural stone to create tessellating 3D-stone surfaces, modular partitions and cladding panels for interiors. Traditionally extremely time-consuming and highly-skilled work, hand-carved by stone masons.

人造石也许代表最常见的物理工程材料的形状。这里显示的是Cosentino的Silestone Nebula，由包含94%天然石英的化合物制成。

一些天然材料具有固有的理想的性能和美学品质，但是它们自然存在的形状极大限制了它们对各种应用和用途的适应性。竹子是一种可快速再生的天然材料，每天能长高1米，使它在建筑方面的应用非常具有可持续性。但是竹子天然存在空心茎（竹节）形状，并不适合直接替代标准化木制品。

Reconstituted stone represents perhaps the most common form of physically engineered materials. Shown here, Cosentino's Silestone Nebula, made of a compound comprising 94% natural quartz.
Some natural materials have inherent desirable performance and aesthetic qualities, yet their suitability for various applications and uses can be considerably restricted by their naturally occurring form. Bamboo is a rapidly renewable natural material, growing up to 1 metre each day, making it very sustainable for use in construction. But its naturally occurring hollow stem form does not lend itself well as a direct replacement for standardised timber products.

photo © Moso

竹子是一种可快速再生的天然材料，24小时能长高1米，使它成为理想的可持续性材料。工程化意味着，竹子一旦被改进，将挑战木材的使用。

A rapidly renewable natural material, bamboo can grow up to a metre in height in a single 24 hours, making it the ideal sustainable material. Engineering means it can, once modified, challenge the use of timber.

photo © Moso

荷兰竹制品生产商Moso专门研究一系列可持续性竹制品的创新，包括标准化的面板、木板、贴面板和方块，类似传统的木材样式。

像荷兰Moso这样的制造商现在生产一系列标准化的面板、木板、贴面板和竹块，可以与常用的木材样式媲美。在外观和性能上，这些产品即使没超过也与很多常用于建筑设计的硬木性能相当。通过对竹子内天然存在的糖分进行碳化处理，它的外观也能得到改变，从自然的淡黄色，到一系列较暗色调，再到类似于桃花心木的丰富色彩。

Dutch bamboo-products manufacturer Moso specialises in the innovation of a range of sustainable bamboo products, including standardised panels, boards, veneers and blocks, similar to conventional timber formats.
Manufacturers, such as Moso from the Netherlands, now produce bamboo in a range of standardised panels, boards, veneers and blocks, comparable to commonly available timber formats. These products are similar in appearance and performance to many hardwoods often used in architecture and design, if not surpassing them. Through a 'carbonisation' process of the naturally occurring sugars within bamboo, its appearance can also be altered from its natural straw yellow, through a range of darker tones, down to a rich colour similar to mahogany.

竹子是耐用的可持续性超级材料，理查德•罗杰斯（Richard Rogers） 参与设计的马德里巴拉哈斯机场新航站楼就采用了Moso竹材公司制造的212,000平方米的竹板条包盖着屋顶的内表面。

但是我们不再只限于同质材料，实际上，“工程材料”（设计来满足特定性能要求的材料）的概念和复合材料最密切相关。在改造天然材料的世界里，复合材料也表现突出，这种情况是恰当的。

苏黎世设计师Beat Karrer是用自然农业废物或者副产品来制造复合材料的众多设计者之一。他研制的“流动固体”材料可以使用一些与热塑塑料相同的技术来加工、成形和着色，并为大批量生产物品提供了各种各样的机会，这点能够在2012年米兰揭幕的Architonic概念空间得到证明。“流动固体”材料使用有机粘合剂，没有气味和毒素，并且是完全生物降解的，不像合成复合材料出了名的难以分离和回收。

The durable, sustainable super-material that is bamboo is put to work in the Richard Rogers Partnership-designed New Terminal Area at Madrid Barajas Airport. 212,000 square metres of bamboo slats, produced by Moso, clad the internal face of the roof.
But we are no longer only restricted to homogenous materials, and in fact the concept of 'engineered materials' (materials designed to meet specific performance requirements) is most closely associated with composites. So it is appropriate that, in the world of engineered natural materials, composites are also prominent.
Zürich-based designer Beat Karrer is one of many designers to create a composite material manufactured from natural agricultural waste or by-products. His 'Fluid Solids' material can be processed, formed and coloured using some of the same techniques as thermoplastics, providing a diverse range of opportunities for batch- and mass-produced items, as demonstrated in the Architonic Concept Space unveiled at Milan 2012.Using an organic binding agent, his 'Fluid Solids' material is free from odours, toxins and is fully biodegradable, unlike synthetic composites, which are notoriously difficult to separate and recycle.

以巧妙组合的形式创新材料：苏黎世设计师Beat Karrer研制的“流动固体”材料，用自然农业废料或者副产品来制造，可以使用类似热塑塑料中应用的技术来成形和着色。

Material innovation in the form of a clever composite: Zurich-based designer Beat Karrer's 'Fluid Solids' material, made from natural agricultural waste or by-products, can be formed and coloured using techniques akin to those employed in thermoplastics.

瑞士设计师Beat Karrer研制的“流动固体”材料，使用有机粘合剂，没有气味和毒素，是完全生物降解的，不像合成复合材料难以分离和回收。

'Fluid Solids', developed by Swiss designer Beat Karrer, uses an organic binding agent and is completely biodegradable, as well as free from odours and toxins – unlike synthetic composites, which are difficult to separate and recycle.

Beat Karrer研制的创新的完全生物降解的“流动固体”材料，在Architonic IV概念空间中呈现雕塑的形状，已经安装在主要的国际设计展。

化学工程

制造商超越物理方法改造自然材料的组成、结构和形状，也能在分子水平上用化学方法改变材料，允许他们获得可能被视为低劣或有缺陷的材料，给予材料更多有益的性能特征。

Beat Karrer's innovative, fully biodegradable composite material 'Fluid Solids' lends sculptural form to Architonic's Concept Space IV, which has been installed at leading design fairs internationally.
Chemical engineering
Beyond physically modifying the make-up, structure and form of natural materials, manufacturers are also able to chemically alter materials at the molecular level, allowing them to take what may be considered inferior or flawed materials and impart them with more beneficial performance characteristics.

英国建筑师达根•莫里斯（Duggan Morris）指定帕拉托木材（Platowood）用作英格兰肯特郡Old Bearhurst项目的包层，帕拉托木材（Platowood）是市场上很多新的化学方法处理的木材产品中的一种。

改性木材产品（如帕拉托木材、炭化木、固雅木和最近创造的Kebony辐射松改性木材）的新市场使用各种化学工程技术，从根本上提高某些木材的性能，为生长缓慢的热带硬木提供了可行的和可持续的替代品。

British architects Duggan Morris specified Platowood, one of a number of new chemically engineered timber products on the market, for the cladding of their Old Bearhurst project in Kent, England; photo James Brittain.
A new market of modified timber products (such as Platowood, Thermowood, Accoya and the recently created Kebony) employ various chemical-engineering techniques to radically improve the performance of certain timbers, providing a viable and sustainable alternative to slow-growing tropical hardwoods.

固雅木是另一种化学方法处理的木材产品，应用于RO&AD设计的荷兰Halsteren的摩西桥。

肯博尼公司的专利处理工艺Kobonization用液态“生物废弃物”浸泡木材，永久改变其细胞壁的结构。这个工艺生产出的木材具有很多优点，像持久耐用、免维修、尺寸稳定、抗菌、昆虫降解、耐磨、无毒。Kebonization工艺的意外结果是木材色调的深化，即使在苍白色调的木材上也能产生丰富的巧克力棕色。

Kebonization工艺是个聚合过程，虽然不象传统塑料从原油中提取产品，而是从产自农业作物废料的糠醇中提取。这个过程产生了生物聚合物呋喃，加强了木材的内部细胞结构，赋予肯博尼木材以力学性能。

Another chemically engineered timber product, Accoya, is applied to RO&AD architecten's Moses Bridge in Halsteren, Netherlands.
Kebony’s proprietary treatment process, Kobonization, impregnates a timber with liquid 'biowastes' to permanently modify the structure of its cell walls. This process produces timbers that are long-lasting, maintenance-free, dimensionally stable, resistant to fungal and insect-related degradation, hard-wearing and non-toxic. A side effect of kebonization is the deepening of the timber’s colour tone, resulting in a rich chocolate brown, even in pale-toned timbers.
Kebonization is a polymerisation process, though not of products extracted from crude oil, as in traditional plastics, but from furfuryl alcohol, which is produced from agricultural crop waste. This creates the bio-polymer Furan, which strengthens the internal cell structure of the timber, giving Kebony its mechanical properties.

在这里肯博尼木材用来创建伦敦的一座雕塑馆，代表了新一代工程木材：木材经过液态“生物废弃物”的浸泡，改变其细胞结构，结果产生一种持久耐用、稳定、免维护的材料。

由生物体产生的生物聚合物和材料也凭借自身实力用于建筑和设计，在包装中最常遇到。通过用天然纤维增强生物聚合物，工程师能够创造生物复合材料，用于更大规模的建筑，替代传统材料如玻璃纤维增强聚合物。这样的一个例子是位于丹麦的路易斯安那现代艺术博物馆的路易斯安那州馆，它由3XN建筑事务所设计，于2010年获得JEC创新奖。

Kebony, used here to create a sculptural pavilion in London, represents a new generation of engineered woods: timber is impregnated with liquid 'biowastes' to modify its cellular structure, resulting in a durable, stable, maintenance-free material.
Bio-polymers, materials produced by or from living organisms, are also materials used in architecture and design in their own right, most commonly encountered in packaging. By reinforcing bio-polymers with natural fibres, engineers can create bio-composites usable on a much larger architectural scale as an alternative to conventional materials such as glass-fibre reinforced polymers. One such example is the Louisiana Pavilion at Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, designed by 3XN, which won the JEC Innovation Award in 2010.

生物复合材料由天然纤维增强的生物聚合物（生物体产生或组成的材料）组成，提供新的建筑可能。这里显示的是丹麦3XN建筑事务所设计的路易斯安那现代艺术博物馆的路易斯安那州馆。

成长和鼓励

我们不总是必须用蛮力来使自然屈服于我们的意志。也可能通过利用固有的生物机制如增长或呼吸来控制或温和支配它。绿色屋顶、充满活力的立面、甚至城市农场是很好的例子，显示了怎样可能对自然温柔地施加控制，为了特定的目的以及作为更大建筑系统的一部分。

“BenettiMOSS”就是这样一个产品，由Benetti石制成。它是由嵌入树脂基座的固定苔藓组成的面板式室内垂直花园产品，“BenettiMOSS”可以调节室内湿度，净化室内空气。苔藓生命力非常旺盛，不需要灌溉、维护，甚至不需要自然光就能繁茂成长。

Bio-composites – made up of bio-polymers (materials produced by or from living organisms) reinforced with natural fibres – offer new architectural possibilities. Shown here, Danish office 3XN's Louisiana Pavilion for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Growth and encouragement
We do not always have to apply brute strength to bend nature to our will. It is also possible to control or gently coerce it by exploiting inherent biological mechanisms such as growth or respiration. Green roofs, living facades and even urban farms are excellent examples of how it is possible to gently exercise control over nature for a specific purpose and as part of a larger architectural system.
‘BenettiMOSS’, by Benetti stone, is such a product. A panelised interior vertical garden product composed of stabilised-lichen embedded in a resin base, ‘BenettiMOSS’ regulates indoor moisture levels and cleanses the air of interiors. The lichen is extremely robust, requiring no irrigation, maintenance or even natural light to thrive.

“BenettiMOSS”由Benetti石制成。它是使用固定苔藓的室内垂直花园产品，可以调节室内湿度，净化空气。它是利用固有的生物机制来温和支配大自然的一个例子。

2013年4月，奥雅纳工程顾问公司（Arup）在汉堡举办的国际建筑展览（IBA）试验“生物自适应”立面。在玻璃立面单元中种养着活的微藻，随其生长，藻类提供自适应遮阳、私密性、隔热、降噪，随后也吸收太阳能用来加热大楼的热水槽。然后收获成熟的藻类，在现场沼气厂发酵，生产可用的能源。

‘BenettiMOSS’, by Benetti stone, is an interior vertical-garden product that uses stabilised lichen to regulate indoor moisture levels and clean the air. It is one example of a gentle coercion of nature by exploiting its inherent biological mechanisms.
In April, international engineers Arup piloted a ‘bio-adaptive’ facade for the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg. By housing live micro-algae in glazed facade elements, as it grows the algae provides adaptive solar shading, privacy, thermal insulation, noise reduction and also absorbs solar energy subsequently used to heat the building's hot-water tank. The mature algae is then later harvested and fermented in an on-site biogas plant, producing usable energy.

2013年奥雅纳工程顾问公司（Arup）在汉堡举办的国际建筑展览试验“生物自适应”立面，在那里活的微藻提供自适应遮阳、私密性、隔热。

这种支配自然的能力不再仅用于生产材料或其它产品本身，但是也提出了全新的制造工艺和技术。

除了探索自然能源的利用，设计师马库斯•凯泽（Markus Kayser）研究了如何直接将它用作工具。凯泽（Kayser）在2010年创造了一个太阳能激光切割机，不仅吸收太阳能来给机械刀具提供能量，还能输送太阳光线，通过一个玻璃球透镜来激光切割2D组件。第二年凯泽（Kayser）回到埃及沙漠，这一次带上了他的太阳能烧结（SolarSinter）机器，再次利用太阳光，来融化和改造沙漠的沙子变成固体物质，方法类似于SLS（选择性激光烧结）3D打印技术。

Arup chose this year's International Building Exhibition in Hamburg to pilot a ‘bio-adaptive’ facade, where live micro-algae provides adaptive solar shading, privacy and thermal insulation.
This ability to coerce nature is no longer only being applied to producing materials or other products themselves, however, but also to propose entirely new manufacturing processes and techniques.
In addition to exploring the harnessing of nature’s energy, designer Markus Kayser has examined how to use it directly as a tool. In 2010 Kayser created a solar-powered laser-cutter that does not just capture solar energy to power a mechanical cutting tool, but channels the sun's rays through a glass-ball lens to ‘laser’-cut 2D components. The following year, Kayser returned to the Egyptian desert, this time with his SolarSinter machine, which again makes use of solar rays to melt and reform the sand of the desert into solid objects, similar to the SLS (selective laser sintering) 3D-printing technique.

绿色屋顶是利用生物学机制以更温和的方式支配自然的一个例子。这里显示的是BIG设计的位于哥本哈根的八屋（8 House）(上图最上一个房子)，以及RO&AD建筑事务所设计的位于罗森达尔市 的好屋（Good House）。

2008年，伦敦建筑师马格纳斯•拉尔森（Magnus Larsson）和普通有限公司（Ordinary Ltd ）做了一项研究，考察细菌如何能用来将沙漠的沙子变成巨大的砂岩结构，效果上相当于在一个全新的范围进行有组织的3D打印机操作。当建筑位于难以接近的地方和环境时，这项技术是最有益的，因为建筑原材料不必运送到场地，场地本身就是材料。

Green roofs are one example of the coercion of nature in a more gentle way, exploiting its biological mechanisms. Shown here, BIG's 8 House in Copenhagen (top) and RO&AD architecten's The Good House in Roosendaal (photo Erik Stekelenburg).
In 2008 London architect Magnus Larsson and Ordinary Ltd produced a study on how bacteria could be used to turn the sands of a desert into enormous sandstone structures, in effect an organic 3D-printer operating on an entirely new scale. This technique is most beneficial when building in difficult-to-access locations and environments, as the raw materials for construction do not have to be transported to site; the site itself is the material.

设计师马库斯•凯塞（Markus Kayser）在埃及沙漠亲自安装太阳能烧结机器来利用太阳能。太阳光用来融化和改造沙子，以类似3D打印的工艺创造固体对象。

绝大多数的探索类似想法的设计师和制造商清楚地表明信念，相信这个概念带来的好处，以及彻底改变我们的未来建造方法的潜力。这也许是福斯特建筑事务所（Foster & Partners）最期待的，它雄心勃勃地提议，利用D-Shape（位于伦敦的Monolite UK Ltd 3D打印公司创造的品牌）开发的技术，用月球土壤来进行3D打印，来建造以月球为基础的大的结构。

Designer Markus Kayser installed himself in the Egyptian desert with his SolarSinter machine to harness the energy of the sun. Solar rays are used to melt and reform sand, creating solid objects in a process similar to 3D-printing; photos Amos Field Reid.
The sheer number of designers and manufacturers exploring similar ideas clearly demonstrates the belief in the benefits of this concept and its potential to revolutionise our future methods of construction. This is perhaps best envisioned by Foster & Partners' ambitious proposal to 3D-print large, moon-based structures from the lunar soil, using technology developed by D-Shape (a brand created by the London based 3D-printing firm Monolite UK Ltd).

2008年，伦敦建筑师马格努斯•拉尔森（Magnus Larsson）和Ordinary有限公司进行了一项研究，考察细菌一旦加到沙子里，如何可能以类似3D打印的方式用来创建大型的砂岩结构 。

本文讨论的工程化自然的案例表明，通过将创新和创造性思维应用于我们周围的更具可持续性的材料和资源，我们不仅能够创造有吸引力的产品，使产品与我们的自然环境更和谐（如果不是比既定的合成产品更好，也是表现相同），而且还能创建全新的生产和施工模式，使我们能够扩展建筑环境，超出我们曾认为可能的环境。

A study conducted in 2008 by London-based architect Magnus Larsson and Ordinary Ltd investigated how bacteria, once added to sand, might be used to create large-scale sandstone structures, akin to 3D-printing.
The examples of engineered nature discussed in this article show that by applying innovation and creative thinking to the more sustainable materials and resources available around us we are able not only create attractive products that are more harmonious with our natural environment (while also performing as well, if not better, than established synthetic products), but we can also create entirely new models of production and construction, enabling us to extend the built environment beyond what we ever considered possible.

出处：本文译自www.architonic.com/，转载请注明出处。