Printing Hybrids
Björn Naumann

Printing Hybrids is an experimental material concept in which I harness moisture-responsive movement. A planar structure shapes itself into a spatial body, by responding to changes of the environmental conditions. The physical material properties of wood - swelling and shrinking - thus becomes the shaping factor of this process, wheres the formal expression of the movement can be influenced by a programmed functional pattern made of an elastic polyurethane. Thus, wood and plastic are bonded into a detachable bi-composite, in which natural hygroscopic material properties are coupled with programmable synthetic functions. This symbiosis shows that material- specific transformation processes on a microscopic level can be scaled to a size that is “usable” for designers.