The Textile City
Whether as soundproofing, indirect lighting or to clean the air, technical textiles have become an integral part of urban life.
As hubs of productivity, communication and innovation, cities are the driving force behind social and technical trends and entice people with promises of variety, entertainment and jobs. Since 2008, for the first time, more than half the world’s population has been living in urbanised areas. The United Nations predict that this figure will reach 70 percent by 2050. This is a turning point in the history of humankind and a rapid development that is placing new demands on construction, mobility concepts, food supply, infrastructure and housing.
Technical textiles offer solutions for the various challenges faced by high-density areas. Sometimes more, sometimes less visible, they are making their mark on urban life. Shade technologies protect from UV rays on playgrounds, silent asphalt reduces noise pollution on roads and textile filter technologies make it possible to filter recyclable materials from waste water and feed them back into cycles. “It’s hard to imagine what urban life without textiles would be like for people. Not only because we wear textiles on our bodies and use them to express ourselves as individual personalities. The curtains we pull back each morning are made of textiles, as are the carpets we walk on and car or train seats… and the list goes on,” explains Johannes Diebel, Research Director at textile research network Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V.
Juni 2019 · More Informationen (Website of Messe Frankfurt)