Air Folly
Architecture and Material R&D BARE Material Support Bada&Haecho, Marine&Bio Air Folly Location ACC Children Lobby, Asia Culture Center (June 18-July 14, 2024) Photograph Captions BARE, Pai Hyungmin
Utilizing industrial by-products and marine waste to create a virtuous cycle in the ecosystem Air Folly is quintessential recycled architecture. Reinterpreting polytunnels, Air Folly creates an architectural structure made of biodegradable seaweed-based vinyl. Algae film, made from seaweed stalks, is easily absorbed into the soil or marine ecosystem at the end of its useful life, hence making it a potential alternative to agricultural plastic waste. In addition, by creating an air layer between the tissues, it is a durable structure that provides for product development and spatial expansion. Air Folly’s modular structure, easily assembled, disassembled, and moved, is important from a recycling perspective. As an expansion of BARE’s on-going experiments with fluid structures reflecting contemporary life, Air Folly allows materials to be connected to other uses instead of being thrown away. Air Folly’s production, use, and decomposition process facilitates a new life cycle of seaweed plastic: from sea and soil to urban spaces, and then back to land and water.
BARE
Materials used for seaweed plastic films: from seaweed by-products to raw biodegradable materials and compounds. Depending on the seaweed percentage and thickness, biodegradable films take on different properties.
Documentation of the biodegradation cycle of seaweed bioplastic by Dr. Jeong Seong Oh. Tests conducted on a mulching vinyl, composed of corn starch-based PLA and ultrafine seaweed powder processed to at least 2000 mesh, demonstrated biodegradation on the soil surface. The key challenge to expanding the use of this fully compostable material is the establishment of dedicated processing facilities.
Various seaweed sheet samples were produced by adjusting the percentage of dry seaweed powder and color pigments in biodegradable PLA-based materials.
At a vinyl factory near the seaweed farm in Goheung, Jeonnam Province. A factory producing disposable plastic bags, it mass-produced a certain width but with problems of thickness and uneven surface. Jeon Jinhong of BARE is holding the first sample of the seaweed sheets, testing the thickness, width, and color modified from the agricultural mulching vinyl.
In March 2024, biodegradable seaweed films were produced using a vinyl-blowing machine at the Goheung factory. In collaboration with the Textile Art and Fashion Design Department at Hongik University, the 200m long film was used to make 20 garments presented together with the Air Folly.
In April 2024, thicker sheets were produced using a different extrusion method at a textile research center in Daegu. Although the overall width was narrower compared to the blowing method, a thicker, more uniform surface of 400 μm was produced. With its capacity to withstand air pressure, it is used in the Air Folly structure.
In May 2023, thermal bonding tests of seaweed films were conducted at a factory located in Siheung. The key was to find the appropriate thickness that could withstand air pressure.
Samples produced for Air Folly skin modules, May 2024. Their shape changes according to joint locations and mold details.
The floor and furniture for Air Folly were designed to function as buoys that float on water. Consistent with the logic of circularity, this design strategy ensures conversion to different uses. Before full production, a 1:1 mock-up of the white square buoy was 3D printed and a circular buoy was test injected with seaweed compounds at a factory in Gwangju. The platform buoys and air structure come together to form a changeable structure.
Mock-up of Air Folly as a modular form; from objects to space units; adapting to changing needs and context. Air Folly shows the characteristics of a variable structure that enables different spatial types such as passageways and resting shelters. This approach challenges singular purpose design too easily discarded after a certain period of use.
Air Folly’s biodegradable seaweed film is also used as a plant bag kit for transporting seedlings. Connecting with various industries, Air Folly explores the possibility of expanding its material design across different scales.
Four types of seaweed fabrics produced at the textile research center will be used for the Air Folly structure and skin modules.
In the extrusion molding process of the films, by-products whose shape are similar to seaweed by-products are produced.
Errors from the extrusion process of biodegradable seaweed sheets. Although a product of error in fabrication, they contain the seaweed character of clinging together and plastic properties that change depending on temperature variations.