Lara Abrams Communications

Smart Wrap

Friday, November 11th, 2005

Well, I won’t tell you it’s been easy to chase down Jason Timberlake of KieranTimberlake Associates LLP in Philly, because it hasn’t been. To date, we still haven’t managed to connect live. However, we’ve exchanged emails. I am not the International Herald Tribune, nor some of the other biggee publications that have managed to catch up with him…However, I was so interested in learning more about Smart Wrap, when I first heard about it about a year ago, that my interest is still piqued. And others seem to be catching on (www.inhabitant.com posted something about it, and you can Google it practically, too, now).  From what I know, Smart Wrap is basically a polyester film which provides structure, while solar cells pump out electricity, OLEDs provide light, and a powdered compound developed by NASA absorbs and releases heat. (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/play.html?pg=9).  Excerpted from an interview done with another magazine - www.contractmagazine.com - :

"The driving concept of the installation is the replacement of bricks and mortar by "smart" walls made of an ultra-thin polymer-based film—the same material used in a plastic soda bottle. This concept integrates technologies in heating, cooling, visual display, lighting, and energy collection in a single micrometer-thin layer of composite film that can be erected in a fraction of ordinary building time. The museum’s pavilion showcases how SmartWrap can be customized with pattern or color using printing technology.

SmartWrap is made of several layers including a substrate, printed and laminated layers, all of which are roll-coated into a single composite film. A polyester film substrate protects from rain and wind. To moderate temperature, SmartWrap contains micro-capsules of phase change materials that are embedded into a polymer resin and then extruded into a film. They provide latent heat storage for thermal moderation by absorbing, storing, or releasing heat as they change state. For lighting and information display, SmartWrap uses Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology that is based on organic molecules that emit light when an electric current is applied. And for power, SmartWrap relies on solar energy that is collected in thin film silicon solar cells. This energy is then used to power the OLED technology."

Now it’s about TIME somebody came up with something like this…!   Says Jason, in the article: "Today, buildings are still being designed using the same materials and processes that were used thousands of years ago," says architect James Timberlake. "We believe we can do better. SmartWrap offers a glimpse of the building envelope of the future."

Doesn’t the future look bright?

 

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To contact Lara, please email her at lara@laraabrams.com or call 415 613 1704.