Adaptive Building Initiative
www.adaptivebuildings.com/adaptive-fritting.html
The Adaptive Building Initiative, with design assistance from Hoberman Associates, created a dynamic installation for Harvard University Graduate School of Design based on ABI’s original invention, Adaptive Fritting. As with standard fritted glass, adaptive fritting utilizes a graphic pattern in order to control heat gain and to modulate light, while allowing sufficient transparency for viewing.
While conventional fritting relies on a fixed pattern, adaptive fritting provides a surface controllable transparency that can modulate between opaque and transparent states. This performance is achieved by shifting a series of fritted glass layers so that the graphic pattern alternately aligns and diverges.
The installation at Gund Hall consists of six motorized panels comprising a 24-foot by 4-foot window, housed within a curved wall. These panels are programmed to form a dynamic field where light transmission, views, and enclosure continuously adapt and change. As the panels transform, the visual effect is of sparse dots blossoming into an opaque surface.
Responsive/Performative Systems 