ABSTRACT
Aramid fibre exemplifies the contrast between natural and engineering mentalities. Emphasising the idea of assembling the right materials in the right ways, Professor Julian Vincent has described how, with just proteins, polysaccharides and some salts, nature has formed materials that have many of the same properties as human-made ones, stretching from polymers through to high-strength composites. Structure and materials are indistinguishable in nature, which is a radically different way of thinking to grasp in an architectural context, where these concerns are more easily separated, and where traditional manufacturing techniques and drawing packages both reinforce this separation. Machines exist that allow mixed materials, as nanoparticles in solution, to be deposited from a jet that is similar to that of an inkjet printer. The very small scale of the material allows low-energy bonds, such as van der Waals forces, to assist in assembling the particles.
