News & Press

The MVV Stiftung Zukunft honoured the FlectoLine façade system with the Special Prize for Bionic Energy Transition Innovation. On 5 May 2025, Dr. Alina Amann from the Executive Board of the MVV Stiftung Zukunft presented the prize to the project team at the 6th Bionics Congress.

The adaptive shading system adapts to environmental conditions

It was developed through a collaboration between the Plant Biomechanics Group, led by Principal Investigator Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck, the livMatS Cluster of Excellence, and the Universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen. Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers, from the Institute of Structures and Conceptual Design (ITKE) and the IntCDC Cluster of Excellence at the University of Stuttgart, led the project.

FlectoLine is an adaptive shading system whose flaps deform elastically without the need for hinges. By intelligently controlling these flaps, the system can react to environmental conditions such as solar radiation. The water trap (Aldrovanda vesiculosa) served as a biological model for the movement mechanism of the shading flaps.

FlectoLine significantly reduces energy consumption

The system has been tested in the gardeners base in the greenhouses at the Freiburg Botanical Garden since 2023. In conjunction with module-integrated photovoltaics, the adaptive shading system ensures the building's energy consumption is minimized, demonstrating a step towards a more sustainable built environment.

The project involved the Plant Biomechanics Group and the livMatS Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg, as well as the Institute of Structures and Conceptual Design (ITKE), the Institute of Textile and Fibre Technologies (ITFT) and the Institute of Structural Analysis and Structural Dynamics (IBB) and the IntCDC Cluster of Excellence, all at the University of Stuttgart, the Institute of Evolution and Ecology at the University of Tübingen and the German Institutes of Textile and Fibre Research (DITF).

Project website