Context and significance

FlexiForm is an EIC Pathfinder project coordinated by Mariana Popescu at TU Delft. Launched in October 2024, the project is experimenting with materially and fabrication-aware methods for concrete structures with the explicit aim of cutting material use and environmental impact. The approach centres on digitally fabricated, functionally graded, 3D-knitted fabric formworks that act both as temporary moulds and as a means to shape structurally efficient geometry. FlexiForm has already moved beyond lab models to public demonstrators including a collaboration that fed into the NECTO installation at the Venice Biennale 2025.

What FlexiForm wants to achieve

The stated mission is to establish a fabrication-aware design workflow. That means design tools which do not treat material and fabrication as afterthoughts but rather as inputs whose output properties are predictably modelled and fed back into design decisions. The project brings together computational design, structural engineering, digital fabrication and construction partners in a small consortium and positions stakeholder engagement as central to any future adoption in the construction sector.

Consortium, demonstrators and the NECTO collaboration

FlexiForm is a small multidisciplinary consortium involving TU Delft groups and external partners in design, fabrication and structural engineering. One visible outcome of cross-group collaboration was the NECTO installation at the Venice Biennale 2025. NECTO was designed by SO-IL in collaboration with Mariana Popescu and others. The structure is a lightweight, anticlastic membrane architecture mostly made of biodegradable fibres and fabricated using CNC knitting. The NECTO project integrated research from FlexiForm and a related DiDAX project and included a bio-based coating that encodes a material passport using synthetic DNA.

NECTO at the Venice Biennale and the DNA material passport

NECTO is framed as an experimental, temporary architecture that explores lightness, reuse and embedded information. It is described as form-found to account for internal stresses, and its fabrication pipeline is reported to automatically generate knitting machine code. The textile uses linen, flax and PVA and a water-soluble bio-based coating that reportedly contains encoded digital information on synthetic DNA. The NECTO team highlights portability, the ability to dissolve the coating at end of life, and the option to compactly transport the textile to subsequent installations.

There are also practical and regulatory questions. Synthetic DNA and coatings must satisfy safety regulations for intended environments. Ownership, access rights and legal recognition of a DNA-based passport will need standards before it can replace conventional digital material passports used in circular economy schemes. Sequencing requirements also mean that material traceability will be practical only when the parties retrieving the passport have access to the appropriate labs or portable sequencing tools.

FlexiForm at the EIC Summit 2025 and the move towards commercialisation

Mariana Popescu presented FlexiForm on Day 1 of the EIC Summit 2025 and the project exhibited among other EIC-funded innovations. Popescu described the experience as energising and said interactions with investors and other EIC projects pushed the team to take the prospect of a start-up more seriously. This mirrors typical trajectories of Pathfinder projects that attempt to convert high risk research outputs into commercial ventures.

Opportunities, realistic benefits and remaining hurdles

FlexiForm addresses well documented problems in construction. The sector is responsible for a large share of material consumption and embodied carbon in Europe. Reducing concrete use through structural optimisation and new formwork strategies is therefore valuable. Digitally controlled knitting and functional grading can in principle enable lighter, material efficient components and new aesthetic possibilities for temporary and even permanent structures.

At the same time the route from demonstrator to mainstream construction is neither automatic nor quick. Several hurdles will need to be resolved for adoption at scale. These include building codes and certification for structural systems that use unconventional formworks, contractor familiarity and procurement practices, supply chains for natural fibres and coatings, durability and maintenance trade offs between biodegradability and service life, and the unit costs for industrial knitting at construction scale.

Implications for the EU innovation ecosystem

FlexiForm is a representative case of how EIC Pathfinder-funded projects can move high risk research to visible public demonstrators and into the debates of designers, engineers and potential funders. The EIC Summit provided networking and encouragement to pursue commercialisation. The EU has the policy frameworks and funds to accelerate such transitions but success depends on practical pilots, clarity on standards, corporate partners willing to run procurement pilots and accessible routes to scale via follow-on funding or private investment.

FlexiForm will need to show reproducible structural performance, cost advantage or compelling supplementary benefits to win procurement contracts beyond research showcases. If it succeeds, the implications extend beyond a single technology because fabrication-aware design is a broader shift in how the built environment is conceived and delivered.

Personal influences and public outreach

Popescu cited influences that shaped her thinking. She referenced David Billington's The Tower and the Bridge which frames structural design around elegance, economy and efficiency. She also mentioned Bill Gates' How to Avoid a Climate Disaster for its systems view of climate mitigation and a newer book A Moratorium on New Construction by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes which challenges the reflex to build more rather than reuse existing assets. These references signal an approach that balances technical innovation with resource restraint and critical reflection on when building is necessary.

FlexiForm and the NECTO collaboration are publicly visible outcomes that blend computational design, material research and exhibition architecture. They are useful tests for new methods but they also highlight the gap between research demonstrators and the routine requirements of construction markets.

Next steps and what to watch

Key indicators to watch for FlexiForm include publication of structural test data under realistic conditions, peer reviewed or third party durability studies for the bio-coating and DNA encoding approach, procurement pilots with industry partners, and funding moves that support scaling such as EIC Transition or private investment. Evidence that the DNA passport is practical at scale and legally recognised as a material traceability instrument would also be significant.

For policymakers and practitioners the project is worth following as an early example of integrating digital fabrication, biomaterials and information embedding into building components. It will be important to treat promising demonstrations as the start of a validation process rather than proof of market readiness.

Where to learn more

FlexiForm is listed on the Horizon Europe database as an EIC Pathfinder project. NECTO and the collaborative partners have published project facts on their websites and the EIC Summit 2025 recording includes Mariana Popescu's presentation. For technical readers, the most useful next step will be to review detailed fabrication pipelines, structural testing data and published methods on the DNA encoding workflow when these are released by the project teams.