What if we could grow architecture from waste seaweed, shaped by electrostatic fields?
Electrospun Architecture is a material-computational design method that scales robotic electrospinning from laboratory artifacts to architectural enclosures. Using a reusable kit of bent aluminum rods as electric field intensifiers, the system grows ultra-light, algae-derived nanofiber membranes in situ, letting form emerge from electrostatic attraction and fiber tension rather than from prescribed CAD geometry.
1. From Surplus to Surface
As oceans warm, excess seaweed is piling up along coastlines around the world, a growing biological surplus that remains largely unused. At the same time, the construction industry remains a major driver of resource extraction, CO2 emissions, and waste, calling for ways of building that use far less material to enclose far more space.
Electrospun Architecture brings these threads together: using seaweed as the raw material and robotic electrospinning as the means to grow ultra-materially-efficient membranes at architectural scale.
2. Large-Scale Robotic Electrospinning
Building on our Electrospun Fields platform, a UR20 robotic arm carries a custom electrospinning end-effector with a syringe pump and a high-voltage supply of up to 20 kV, turning the robot into a mobile emitter that can traverse meter-scale enclosures.
3. Algae-Derived Nanofibers
We introduce sodium alginate, a polysaccharide extracted from brown algae, as a feedstock for electrospun architectural skins. Blended in water with polyethylene oxide (PEO) as a carrier (2.53 wt% alginate, 1.69 wt% PEO), it spins into continuous nanofibers. A 10 wt% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution serves as a stable reference for parameter testing. Both are water-soluble, so the membrane's end-of-life is simply dissolution.
4. Conductive Kit of Parts
We developed a reusable kit of conductive parts: bent aluminum ribs that act as both structure and grounded electrodes, sleeve connectors, foot joints, and nylon tensors that help fibers bridge openings. The kit reassembles into different configurations, each encoding the field that shapes the membrane.
5. A Circular Lifecycle
After use, the membrane is dissolved with a water spray, releasing the aluminum structure intact for reassembly into a new form. The structure outlives the skin, and with the extreme surface-to-mass ratio of nanofibers and a high-voltage supply drawing under a watt, each cycle has a minimal material and energy footprint.
The Electrospun Pavilion
The Electrospun Pavilion is a 3.25 m wide, 2.25 m tall translucent dome of algae-PEO and PVA nanofiber membranes grown in situ over a reusable bent-aluminum structure. Fourteen interlocking ribs and nylon tensors divide it into fourteen bays. About 250 ml of solution produced roughly 10.4 m² of membrane: around 2 g of polymer per square meter, over a hundred times less mass than typical architectural ETFE foil.
A. Field-Found Form
The membrane is not printed but form-found by the field. Bridging between ribs, fibers self-organize into saddle surfaces, with opaque ridges along the ribs and translucent skins across the voids. As the membrane dries and shrinks, the flexible aluminum bends inward, leaving a taut skin without any mechanical post-tensioning.
B. Fiber Behavior
The fourteen bays doubled as an experiment, showing that membrane quality depends on toolpath, flow rate, span, and spinning time. Aiming the emitter at the nylon tensors yields aligned, continuous sheets, while misaligned toolpaths or excess flow produce loose strands and perforations.
C. Pavilion Forensics
Electron microscopy of samples from the pavilion confirms algae nanofibers 0.1 to 1.5 µm in diameter. Fibers near rod intersections are strongly aligned while those farther away are random, showing that alignment follows the local field and can be designed. Transmittance measurements show that translucency is likewise controllable, pointing toward graded screens and shading skins.
Toward a Circular Material Practice
Electrospun Architecture shows that invisible forces, conditioned by a reusable metal structure and choreographed by a robot, can turn coastal surplus into interior architectural enclosures. Membranes are grown rather than assembled, structures are reused rather than demolished, and end-of-life is designed in rather than improvised: an architecture bounded by the ecosystem that produced it.
Open Source Repository
The electrospinning setup, the alginate-PEO and PVA formulation procedures, and the Dynamic Span Analysis protocol are openly released as a step-by-step technical guide.
Credit & Acknowledgements
Behnaz Farahi (Critical Matter Group Director)
Sergio Mutis (Computational Design & Robot Control), Avantika Velho (Material Science), Justin Wan (Computational Design & Robot Toolpathing), Yuxiang Cheng (Robot Control & Video Production), Michelle Liang (Material Science), Jake Tan (Video Production), Ayah Mahmoud, Frank Cong, & Berfin Ataman (Early System Development), James Xiao & Mellanie Rodriguez (Syringe Pump Support), Paolo Salvagione (Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Consultant).
This research was developed in collaboration with the Rutledge Research Group at the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, with special thanks to Nathan Ewell and Greg Rutledge. This work is supported by the MIT–LUMA Grant.