ARACHNE- THE WORLD'S FIRST ARCHITECT.

What wows you the minute you look at it? Does it talk to you or make you think of anything in particular? Is it beauty, the harmony or the intricacy or a combination of all? It is just a spider's web which we all must have seen in our daily life.

It took Homo sapiens thousands of years of thought to come up with the idea of ergonomics, but spiders have been at it for millions of years. When making its web, the spider will use its own body for measurement. In this way the web is the ultimate in practicality and ergonomic design. The spider is able to get around the web extremely quickly and efficiently and will not fall through the holes!

Have you ever had job to do that is so daunting it takes you an incredibly long time just to get around to starting it, if you ever start it at all? Then spare a thought for your friendly neighbourhood arachnid. As with any big job, it is the first thread that is the most difficult for the spider. It will use the wind to carry the first thread from one of its spinnerets. With some luck it will stick to a suitable surface. After the first thread sticks, the spider moseys on over and strengthen it with a second thread. Then it carries on doing it until it judges that the “first” thread is strong enough to support the rest of the web.

The strength of the design of the spider web is so strong that it has been adapted into much of our own architecture. Sometimes the spiders seem to get their ideas from us, but that really isn’t the case!

Spider silk is well-known for its unusual combination of being both lightweight and extremely strong and in some cases, stronger than steel. Based on these extreme qualification researches developed them into several conceptual designs.

Spider Web Threads inspired the engineers and architects for the bridge Cables system.

The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River was the first steel-wire suspension bridge.

The Ting Kau Bridge, Hong Kong, is an example of a cable stay design which reduces the resonance (vibrations) and the cost of the bridge. It saves tons of steel and also makes possible the transportation of heavy trains, cars and traffic.

The cables used to construct this bridge are made of steel, which is one of the strongest materials nowadays. However, technology and designers are searching for other kinds of materials that can be less destructive to nature and as strong as the steel, such as synthetic fibres inspired by natural elements like the spider web.

Pavilion at the University of Stuttgart

It is inspired from the Spider Web,

The team investigated two types of materials to turn this particular model of arachnid architecture into a shelter for humans: fibre composites for structure and a light translucent film for the skin.

Spider Web inspirations in Interior:

Moore Building,Miami Design District

The Core of the building is styling and reshaped by a giant sculpture work inspired from the spider web.

Elastika is a site-specific installation, which aims to mutate the historical Moore building. Oblique ‘stretches’ span the space like chewing gum, establishing an elastic/plastic connection between different floors, creating new understanding in complex geometry and fluid architectural order.

Glass Dome Glazing is one the direct applications of the concept of the spider web . Starting from the truss supports to the form all follow the structure of the spider web.

Luxury and cozy furniture as well as interior designs could be inspired from the shape of the web and even from the silk material itself which is produced by the spiders.

It humbles me that nature without any kind of blueprint or design puts together patterns like this. The spider's web is prelude to this fascinating world of design and structure which we as architects have a lot to learn.