Polytile

In collaboration with the Yoshie and Tachi labs, Polytile marries cutting edge research in self-healing polymers and Japanese craftsmanship practices like Kirigami to inspire possibilities in material science innovation.

︎ Tresure Hunting at DLX, University of Tokyo
︎ Duration: May - July 2022
︎ Solo Project 

  

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OVERVIEW

During my Masters at the Royal College of Art, I had the opportunity to be selected for a summer placement at DLX Design lab(UTokyo) headed by Miles Pennington. As part of the placement, I collaborated with material Scientists from Yoshie Lab(IIS), looking to integrate creative thinking with their scientific research.

While working with self-healing polymers, which are materials that heal themselves with unprecedented speed and efficacy when cut, I facilitated a collaboration between Yoshie and Tachi Labs to marry the science of these polymers with the traditional craftsmanship practice of Kirigami.

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BRIEF

How might we give material scientists creative tools to imagine functionalities and applications of self-healing polymers?

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SOLUTION

Polytile is a visual framework that provides material scientists with a new tool to investigate applications for self-healing polymers using the structural properties of Kirigami. Using cutting-edge science developed by Yoshie Lab, Polytile advances material research and helps scientists imagine the possibilities of their research.

Tags:        
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Design Research
Co-design
Translational Research
Material Research
Information Design
Speculative Design
Toolkit Design

Mentors:  
--                               
Yu Yuchikura  
Miles Pennington
Naoto 
Shota
Yuri 
                                                  Collaborators
--                               
DLX Design Lab︎︎︎
Yoshie Lab,  IIS︎︎︎
Tachi Lab, IIS︎︎︎         
Hunaid Nagaria︎︎︎

Press︎︎︎

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PROCESS

#1 CO-DESIGNING WITH SCIENTISTS

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At DLX, I ‘treasure hunted.’ The goal was to instil creativity and visual thinking in the labs, allowing them to consider applications while creating Self Healing polymers. I conducted a workshop with 3 researchers; Olivier Doat, GuoXiangyuan and Shintaro Nagawaka. From free-flowing conversations, doubtful faces, things lost in translation, and many post-it notes, we uncovered new ways of thinking about these self-healing polymers.

• “It’s like magic.”
• “Can be turned into any colour.”
• “Can replace something that is used daily, discarded daily”
• “The degradability can be controlled.”

#2 FACILITATING A COLLABORATION

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While carrying on the research with this speculative material, I wanted to see how the existing traditional crafts can add a new dimension to these 2d materials. These questions led me to IIS’s Tachi Lab.
Can these be deployed in 3D or even upcoming 4dimensional ways? How can they extend their applications? The lab uses the science of kirigami to explore relationships between spatial forms and function through geometric modelling and algorithms to create functional systems.

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DISCOVERY

#1 EXPLORING MATERIAL PROPOERTIES

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Polymers developed by Yoshie lab are tough rubbers, stimuli driven and have a predetermined degradation rate. In the lab, I played with pieces of self-healing polymers by cutting, pressing, and curing to form a single sheet in under fifteen minutes. Magic!

#2 THE MAKING OF KIRIGAMI PATTERNS ON SELF-HEALING POLYMERS

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Kirigami is the Japanese art of cutting and folding to realise three-dimensional structures. This technique can therefore be applied in structuring technologically advanced metamaterials like self-healing polymers to enhance material properties and performances.

I then discovered that Kirigami can create functional polymeric films at nano, micro, and macro scales. The healing capacity is determined by the cut line, which can be reduced in simple ways such as keeping it deployed.  The pattern is bistable if it has two stable equilibrium states. 

Furthermore, these membranes with specific behaviours can be deployed to perform certain functions.

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HYPOTHESIS

The kirigami designs provide for a "void" and "slit" method that can be triggered by stimuli to allow for repetitive cycles of opening and shutting. The maker can define a high or low stimulus point as the "threshold," or the point of change/inflection point from which the Healing Completion Rate accelerates.

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PROPOSITION

#1 POLYTILE FRAMEWORK

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Polymer scientists are known to work and make materials with desirable qualities and therefore I wanted to leverage the careful selection process that goes on in a lab. By bringing two technologies together, Polytile gives researchers a visual and creative framework to imagine potential applications whilst creating these self healing polymers in the lab itself. The framework allows the researchers to be playful with the parameters, and the delicate geometry of the kirigami patterns to explore and constantly iterate. 

Breakdown of the Framework:

1.BEHAVIOURChoosing which type of behaviour the self healing polymer material will be designed for.

2.CONTEXTDeploying the membrane and its desired behaviour in a certain setting and providing desired functionality.

3.GEOMETRYUnderstanding the parameters required to identify the suitable Kirigami Pattern and place it between the desired states of matter.

4.STIMULIChoosing the stimulus that would activate the healing process. The maker can define a high or low stimulus point as the "threshold," or the point of change/inflection point from which the Healing Completion Rate accelerates.

5.TOPOLOGYDeploying the right scale of parameters to achieve the targeted self healing polymer.

6.OPTIMISATION Choosing the threshold level atwhich the self-healing polymer begins to heal.

#2 DASHBOARD

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Polytile comes in the form of a dashboard that allows easy visualisation and then generates reference cards for the scientists. Before beginning a specific research, the dashboard allows for a purposeful investigation to set a scope and build a vision, programme and make new material using a selected set of parameters, and later test material in the lab..

#3 USE CASE

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Now taking nature as an inspiration for regenerative solutions, I propose seeing these patterned polymers as membranes similar to those found in nature. A membrane functions as a selective barrier. It has the ability to protect, collect, resist, and allow entry. This also helped me understand Material as a system and how it can serve as a scaffolding for other mechanisms and applications.

Using this example, the scientist can next test this application on a microscale in the lab. Self-healing polymers with delayed healing can be used to package floriculture cold supply chains where optimum temperature and humidity are required. These can heal while using temperature as the stimulation to lock in moisture and keep these perishable goods fresh for longer. This is just one of the many possible applications that are yet to be discovered.

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IMPACT

With Polytile, I want to contribute to the discourse of material research, by providing creative and visual tools to the researchers. I'm looking forward to seeing how frameworks like Polytile can help us learn more about the intricacies of such resilient and morphic metamaterials.

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EXHIBITIONS