SmartWrap

Kieran Timberlake Associates

http://kierantimberlake.com/research/smartwrap_research_3.html#

SmartWrap is a composite that integrates the currently segregated functions of a conventional wall and combines them into one advanced composite. The intention of the pavilion is to explain the concept of the wrap in its architectural and artistic context, to describe its various components, and demonstrate the transfer technologies associated with it.

Inspired by material science and the printing industry, SmartWrap utilizes innovative products rolled and printed onto fabrics and plastic films in roll-to-roll processes. The idea is realized through the transfer of technologies from other industries to provide for the following selected criteria: Shelter, Climate Control, Lighting and Information Display, and Power.

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“Energy Saving” Home

Michael Fox, Foxlin Inc.

www.foxlin.com/r-project_4/index.html#

The “ES home” (Energy Saving) wireless home energy monitor. The device, of simple and minimalist design, can be carried to every room in order to assess the successes and failures of both individual objects and room summaries. In addition to the device, all of the information can be viewed directly on a computer as well. When the unit is in its dock, or not in use, screensavers such as a tree design, abstractly indicate the efficiency status of your home. These vary depending on the “health” of the building.

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Interactive Facade

Michael Fox, Axel Kilian  |  MIT Kinetic Design Group

www.foxlin.com/r-project_12/index.html

The project at once engages individual interactively and at the same time actively mirrors the unengaged pedestrian activity as a whole. This façade fosters direct interaction between an architectural – scale installation and pedestrian activity on the street. The 160′ long band of responsive “whiskers” that will wrap around the building in the heart of Manhattan allows pedestrians to walk up and interact with the installation. The bars move in wave-like rhythm driven by sensors mounted beneath each row that monitor the presence of a moving person. If motion is detected, the poles gradually point towards the target creating a ripple through the field. Each element moves in a simple fashion but together more complex patterns evolve.

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Voxel Facades Technology

  

NOVA Systems

http://www.framefactory.ch/download/thesis/nova_thesis.pdf

“Voxel” is a term combining the words volumetric and pixel. A voxel facade is a subclass of 3D-display technology built from a static volume that creates images without any moving parts. 2D images are created by arraying pixels in a 2D grid in X and Y direction. By arranging pixels in a 3D grid in X, Y and Z direction and placing pixels on each net crossing point, the former 2D image can be transformed into a 3D image.

The NOVA 3D screen was displayed at the Zurich central train station in 2006 as the first commercially available 3D display system. NOVA was an important milestone in media technologies’ growing interest in 3D displays.

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Hyposurface

HypoSurface Corp.

http://archimedespool.wordpress.com/2007/10/05/hyposurface

“HypoSurface is the World’s first display system where the screen surface physically moves! Information and form are linked to give a radical new media technology: an info-form device. The surface behaves like a precisely controlled liquid: waves, patterns, logos, even text emerge and fade continually within its dynamic surface. The human eye is drawn to physical movement, and this gives HypoSurface a basic advantage over other display systems.”

– www.hyposurface.org

The display has been constructed using reflecting metal plates that are moved pneumatically and react in ‘real-time’ to electronic input. Sensors transfer impulses from the surroundings of the display and these are transmitted to a matrix of rotors to which the metal plates are attached. The movements of the spectators are transferred in ‘real-time’ to the display and transferred in exact detail into expressive, naturally looking flowing movements

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SmartSlab

SmartSlab Ltd.

www.smartslab.co.uk

SmartSlab was introduced at the Architectural Biennale 2006 in Venice. SmartSlab uses two bionic principles – the honeycomb shape and the compound eye.

The stability of honeycomb is a protection for the electronics and makes the system robust; polycarbonate offers transparency and high mechanical stability – all this makes SmartSlab ideally suited for external use. The compound eye principle gives a better and clearer picture imaging than other systems.

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Institut du Monde Arabe

Jean Nouvel

At Jean Nouvel’s famous ‘Institute du Monde Arabe’ a mechanical media surface has been permanently integrated into the façade construction. The façade is made up of a lavishly constructed lattice window to which blinds have been attached which imitate those of a camera. Using their reaction to the intensity of the sun, light shining into the building can be regulated. The visible mechanics and the design of the blinds come together in an ornamental pattern that changes in interaction with sunlight.

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