Tactility Factory
This collaborative materials project with Trish Belford (textile designer) (2005 –2017) began as a creative project with the conceptual drive of ‘making hard things soft’. It led to two parallel research tracts- 1. Resolving the technical challenges of fusing textiles and concrete together and 2. Reflecting on the cultural challenges and hybrid processes that emerged. The resultant technology was patented, commercialised globally and attracted multiple funding and design awards.
In Collaboration with Trish Belford (textile designer), Maurice Neill (precast expert), Tactility Factory Team, Board Members, Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast
Trans-plastics
This project (2018-2021) is in collaboration with colleagues at Queen’s University Belfast and Robert Jamison Architects. We designed and manufactured using roto-moulding as a production system, an interlocking block from waste plastic and other waste streams. We aimed to draw out the aesthetic potential of waste plastic whilst designing for a circular economy. The project is one workpackage of EPSRC funded project, Advancing Creative Circular Economies for Plastics via Technological-Social Transitions (ACCEPT)
In Collaboration with Peter Martin, Sibele Peidade Cestari, Mark Kearns, Paul Hanna from QUB Polymer Processing Research Centre Chantelle Niblock, Martin Dempster (both QUB academics) Robert Jamison Architects, Guide Dogs for the Blind and Queen’s University Belfast.
Forest Stacks
Forest Stacks (2018-2019) was a community building initiative based in Garvagh Forest. We worked with a team of architects, artists, apprentices, and local people to create temporary public spaces for everyone to use in the forest. A part of the wider Playstacks initiative, Forest Stacks contributed to the Garvagh Peoples Forest Project which creates value in the forest with and for local people enhancing the forest, community life and well-being.
The Forest Stacks project was delivered in partnership with Voluntary Arts Ireland, Arts Ekta, and the Garvagh People’s Forest Project – Garvagh Development Trust. The Architecture Team included Tom McKeogh (design tutor) and Gavin Gribben (QUB Architecture Graduate).
Bacterial Cellulose
This material work (2020-2024) was carried out as part of HBBE, where working with microbiologists, artists and designers we experimented with Bacterial Cellulose (BC) as a building material. The results are published in academic papers and in the Bioprotopia Book. A final experiment was The Snout which aimed to expand the material’s application to a large scale curved form (a snout), by applying Bacterial Cellulose sheets onto a three-dimensional formwork. The prototyping process involved a systematic examination of BC pellicle-to-pellicle attachment techniques.
This work was carried out in collaboration with Karolina Bloch, Armand Agraviador, Mahab Aljannat, Dilan Ozkan, Natalia Pynirtzi, Oliver Perry, Ben Bridgens and HBBE at Newcastle University, UK.
Biocellular Concrete
This work (2016-2024) began at Queen’s University Belfast and developed further at Newcastle University. At Queen’s it was the focus of a PhD Study (Liz Gilligan) to design a ‘super-green’ concrete facade possible, using waste and by-materials, low carbon cement and designing facade panels in such a way as to act as a living green surface. In HBBE Newcastle University, the exploration went further to refine the cladding design to ensure that the surfaces became habitats for microbial lifeforms that would further sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. Some of the outcomes of this work can be found in the Bioprotopia Book.
This work was carried out in collaboration with Sree Nanukuttan, Rory Doherty, Liz Gilligan, Queen’s University Belfast and research colleagues in HBBE, Newcastle University.
Leitrim Sketches
This is a personal ongoing area of material experimentation – working with a combination of waste, natural and locally resourced materials, in the renovation of an old Irish house, and the rejuvenation of existing outhouses and surrounding landscape.
This work is carried out in collaboration with Peter Mutschler, friends and neighbours
Ruth Morrow 