Kaynemaile is a chainmail-like architectural mesh made from recyclable plastic
Designboom feature by Beatrice Murray-Nag
During this year’s NYCxDESIGN, a tricolored pavilion woven of red, white and blue plastic mesh popped up in times square. looking closely, the colorful walls of the installation are in fact not ‘walls’ at all, but have been created with a futuristic plastic chainmail-like fabric that goes by the name of kaynemaile.
The mesh — made from a recyclable polycarbonate — has been created by lord of the rings set designer kayne horsham, who became rather practiced in the art of designing and creating chainmail during his work on the fantasy trilogy for which he wove millions of rings into armor robes for viggo morteson and orlando bloom alike. The patented plastic mesh is already being used by architects to create, divide and protect building interiors and exteriors around the world.
After hours spent hand assembling chainmail suits during his lord of the rings career, horsham came to the idea that there must be an easier was to create fabrics of a similar structure without interlinking each loop by hand. to produce kaynemaile — which was awarded best architectural product at the NYCxDESIGN award — horsham experimented to produce a seamless plastic mesh via an injection moulding process, eventually creating a 3D material made up of solid rings with no joints or seems. This means that kaynemaile can be produced in unlimited sizes, using a wide range of colors. The fabric itself is made from a recyclable, UV stabilized high-spec polycarbonate, which is resistant to fire and almost impossible to damage.
