PolyBrick 3.0: live signatures through DNA hydrogels and digital ceramics

PolyTile 2.0: Programmable microtextured ceramic architectural tiles embedded with environmentally responsive biofunctionality

“…Ceramic porosity on the macroscale and microscale provides a scaffolding to form the ceramic-hydrogel composite structure. 4 Because glaze chemistry crucially determines the formation of the composite, it serves as a limit on manufacturability and scalability. PolyBrick H2.0 14 investigated glaze chemistries and micro-texturing to successfully control the flow of water across a ceramic surface.…”

“…When glazing a textured surface, scraping pixels provided a means to have highly resolved and small unglazed areas. 4 However, due to the low viscosity of the pre-hydrogel The above tile was fully coated with a thick ZnO glaze and glaze fired. After cooling, the tile was submerged with fluorescent hydrogel presolution at level with its surface height.…”

“…2. Identical to Tile 1, but with texturing dimensions decreasing down the axis perpendicular to the direction of curvature (y ¼ 3.0004 þ 0.4421233x À 0.01406171x 2 þ 0.0001321406x 3 À 3.729295eÀ7x 4 ). The thickness of the tile is 5 mm at its thinnest and 11 mm at its thickest.…”

“…Through expanding to more adaptable hydrogels, such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and PEGcomposites, from the previous DNA hydrogels used in PolyBrick 3.0 and PolyTile 1.0 such as Meta P-gel, 4 we can use PolyTile 2.0 to expand the breadth, implementation, and approachability of biofunctionality within the context of architectural environments. Hydrogels are often biocompatible [9][10][11][12] and are thus suitable for architectural use due to its engagement with the human body.…”

“…3 Designed in collaboration with biological engineers in Luo Labs at Cornell University, this research proved the compatibility with clay as a material host for life and DNA hydrogel materials. 4 Most recently, the PolyTile series began investigating the development of biofunctional elements within our hybrid tiles. Previous work that utilizes the combination of hydrogels with ceramics mainly resides in bone and tissue engineering research.…”