EMERGENTSPACES
EMERGENTSPACES
when architecture gets personal What if we are able to expand the ways in which we see, hear, touch and sense the space in which we live? What if we can release more people from the screen for more hours by dstributing the interface around the architectural environment? What if the walls, floors, lighting, ventilation and other facets of the architectual environment begin to communicate information to us and learn from interacting with us?
it’s all about you
contents
07 23
07. paradigms shift 09. An Emerging Dialectic 13. Rethinking the Box
23. technologik 27. Items & Things 33. Ubiquitious Computation 37. Architectural Awareness
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43. organic theory 45. Golden Ratios 51. The Facade Evolves 57. Working with Nature 64. A new Epic
paradigm shifts
The way we think about architecture will never be the same. We are in the process of engaging with an architecture that will be more personable than ever before. As technology and architecture
develop a better rapport, their future’s become paradigm shifts entangled and begin to evolve with one another. Buildings are developing the capacity to adapt, change and become dynamic “living” things. Everywhere we look, a discourse is taking place about dynamic architectual environments and their relationship with people. Spaces and the objects therein are developing the ability to gather information on people’s behavior and anticipate what what they might do in the future. This will ultimately lead us towards a more personal rapport with our living spaces in which they learn to adapt and provide people with unique environments.
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Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts // An Emerging Dialectict
an emerging dialectic
The drive towards an adaptable architecture is influenced by the changing patterns of human interaction. Today’s intensificati0n of social and urban change, coupled with the concern for issues of sustainability, amplifies the demand for a new architecture. With ongoing innovations, architecture will be able to tailor its interactions to occupant styles, tastes and needs in real-time. Architecture itself may become conversational in that it provides a new kind of place for idea-sharing and experience enhancement. As interactive design installations gain popularity, occupants will be able to experience themselves and others in new ways.
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Sources of inspiration / A clear distinction is drawn between sources of inspiration and sources of explanation. When natural science is used for explanation or illustration, it is essential that the science is good and that the analogy is valid. But when it is used for inspiration and as a take-off point during thought experiments, it matters less, and misunderstood or even theretical ideas can provide much imaginative stimulus. It is important to always differentiate between the nature of different kinds of theories. Lionel March has written: Logic there is a desire for architecture has interests in abstract forms. to bethought of as an Science typically investigates active,evolutionary, & interactive being. extant forms. Design initiates unique, novel forms. A scientific hypothesis is not the same thing as a design theory. Logical proposition is not to be mistaken for a design. In this context, ours is not a theory of new explanation, but a generative theory. Space, structure and form are the traditional outward expressions of an architectural concept which has developed in the mind of the architect. This idea is taken further in our work. Architectural concepts are expressed as generative rules so that their evolution may be accelerated and tested. The basic rules are described in a genetic language which produces a code-script of new instructions for form generation. Modes of communication / Computer models are used to simulate the development of prototypical forms which are then evaluated on the basis of their performance in a simulated environment. Very large numbers of evolutionary steps can be generated in a short space of time, and the emergent forms are often unexpected. These techniques have previously been limited to easily quantified engineering quirks. Only now is it becoming feasible to apply them to the complex problems associated with our built spaces. To achieve this, we have to consider how structural form can be generally coded for a technique known as a ‘genetic algorithm’, how ill-defined and converse
Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts // An Emerging Dialectict
view is that the current debate about the possibility of a new holistic, intuitive understanding of nature and science promises to make a significant impact towards future environmental and social problems. The pessimistic view is that the urge for this holistic understanding is offset by man’s desperately myopic determination to maintain his superior role as a master species. As each of the looming criterion for uniqueness turns out not to be unique after all, a new twist is applied. There is so far no general developed science of morphology, although the creation of form is fundamental to the basis of all natural and all designed artifacts.
Patterns of interaction / Currently the approach of the end of the century is typically signalled by a frantic scramble in all fields to formulate a holistic view of the universe, the great unification theory, or GUT. In the natural sciences this takes the form of two juxtaposed tendencies. One is to embrace every thing under the umbrella of evolution lor at least evolution in the form of neoDarwinism). Evolution of the chemical elements, evolution of physical costants, evolution of information, cultural evolution - evolutionary theory is somehow made to explain all phenomena. The other tendency is to recruit all other developments in science, such as self-organizing systems, to expand the theory of evolution to make a new meta-theory. Overall there is a tendency to deal with complexity chaos and catastrophe in the same way; to treat natural and artificial systems equally. The optimistic
Power of the self / First language was considered to be unique, then it was the (more difficult to prove) capacity for abstract thought. The ability to use tools was considered unique, until it was demonstrated that other species used tools, and then the criterion became the making of tools ... and so on. What is the problem? Perhaps man’s only unique attribute is a self-conscious obsession with uniqueness. And for what is this supposed unique prowess and alleged superiority used? For the mass murder and torture of his own species, for the entrapment of other species under atrocious conditions as a living larder for the deliberate and conscious destruction of the non renewable resources, and fragile ecosystem of our planet. Homo-sapiens are arguably the one and only species to carry out these acts conscious of the fact that it is possible to behave differently. Charles Darwin established a new world which broke away from the old Newtonian paradigm of stability; a world in a continuous process of evolution and change. Modern physics now describes a world of instability. lIya Prigogine has discovered new types of matter in conditions that are far from equilibrium that reveal the prevalence of instability which is expressed by the phenomenon of small changes in initial conditions leading to large amplifications of the effects of the changes.
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Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts //Rethinking the Box
rethinking the box When environments become responsive and begin to mediate the needs of the users and the environment outside, they must facilitate communication through the physical space itself. How such an environment can describe, adapt to, or change behavior, through adjusting the conditions in which people live, particularly emerging communicative conditions, is determined by today’s technology. Adaptable space is often ensnared in issues of optimization, which in this context is the act of making something as functional or effective as possible. In spatial terms this refers to the ability of a space to address specific user demands by being able to adapt to an optimized state to address a certain action.The drive towards forging an adaptable space is influenced by the changing patterns of human discorse and evlotion. Tomorrow’s intensificati0n of social and urban changes and demands coupled with the concern for issues of sustainability raises the demand for a new architecture. With ongoing innovations, architecture will be able to tailor its interactions to occupant styles, tastes and needs in real-time. Architecture itself may become conversational in that it provides a new kind of place for idea-sharing and experience enhancement. As interactive design installations gain popularity, occupants will be able to experience things for themselves and others in new ways.
the more that bulidngs adapt to us, the more they will become part of us.
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Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts // Rethinking the box
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Dynamic Environments / A number of trends have signaled new insights into how consumer lifestyles may change in the future that are proportional to the dramatic increase of online shopping. There is an increasing computer literacy amongst the populus due to the prevalent rise in service industry focused employment. Additionally, we must consider the changes in population numbers and continuing increases in single-person households. And lastly various trends in the workplace are indicating that some individuals at various levels in the workforce are choosing to work less and work at home in order to devote more time to personal and interests shared by the whole family. All of these factors reflect an enormous increase in both technologies in the home and flexibility in the workspace. Changing patterns of people with the built environment will also force architects to come up with new solutions. It is the constant back and forth relationship of interadion that ultimately will lead to enhanced experience, as users and their environments remain in a constantly evolving dialogue between activities and the quality of the experience of performing these activit’ies.Space, structure and form are the traditional outward expressions of an architectural concept which has developed in the
Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts // Rethinking the Box
mind of the architect. This idea is taken further in our work. Architectural concepts are expressed usually as generative rules so that their evolution may be accelerated and tested. The basic rules are described in a genetic language which produces a code-script of new instructions for form generation. For the people / Architects need to learn to explore think about, and design for applications particularly suited to such new lifestyle trends. ranging from pro grammatic and site-context response toward spatial dynamics. There are a number of changes related to living trends that are expected to dramatically impact fut,ure patterns of energy consumption in both the architecture will adapt and learn from home and the workspace. our actions and adjust itself to us According to the United States census, one-third of all school-age children in the US are, for some part of tne week, latchkey kids; that is they go home to an empty house or home. Children are encouraged to stay at home in rooms stocked with televisions, game consoles, and so on Social Fabric / There are a number of reasons for and are given their own mobile phone in order for telecommuting, including economic advantages, their whereabouts to be checked. family requirements or desires, a preference for fewer social contacts, or simply a preference for the All of these increase the consumption of energy in the home. Aside from the higher penetration of com- space and location. In the past, people gave priority munications and entertainment technologies, there to the demands of the workplace over their personal is a greater demand for heating and lighting in the family, or community interests Time spent at the workplace was not only a source of income, but was home, and more preparation of food during the day. also a determinant of one’s role in the community. Homes, for instance, could be designed to efficiently The workplace provided self-esteem, value, achievehandle the greater amounts of flexibility needed in terms of the number of people using them and the ment, and recognition. People who are cut off from the workplace environment need to discover new times that they are used. sources for achieVing personal satisfaction and for It is the constant back-and-forth relationship of making meaningful social contacts. interadion that ultimately will lead to enhanced expeAn environment can create a dialogue with residents rience, as users and their environments remain in a based on either satisfying an interpretation of goal constantly evolving dialogue between activities and the quality of the experience of performing these states or creatililg a new emergent state (a number of Simple entities forming more complex behaviors) activit’ies. An environment can create a dialogue based on ambiguous assumptions of desires. with inhabitants based on emergent behaviors.
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A space for all / Architectural space can fully take advantage of an audience locally, regionally, as well as globally by reconceptualizing the role that the physical spaces play within shaping the viewer’s experience. An approach such as this suggests that the physical environment can be interactively viewed both within the confines of the space and beyond its walls. New lifestyle trends present many new spatial situations for unique and wholly unexplored recourse that address today’s dynamic, flexible and constantly changing activities. An interactive architectural space can not only facilitate lifestyles and behaviors but also influence them.
a building that adapts to our desires can shape our experience. Shaping our experience / Many of the emerging applications in architecture aren’t limited to spatial and mechanical movement, and can now embrace a wealth of new tectonic innovations that can facilitate interactions through flexible or foldable LCD screens smart fabrics, thin-air projection technologies, and holographic projections. fhese innovations will all be integral to architectural programming in the future and will demand new ways of thinking about and designing the experience of space. While many of these techl1o~ogies are not physical, they do play an important role in influencing the definition and use of space and the experience of space. In many instances, a building that adapts t0 our desires can shape our experience.
Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts // Rethinking the Box
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when architectual space has a true capability to communicate, it can foster a heightened sense of personal attachment.
Emergent Spaces / Paradigm Shifts // Rethinking the Box
technologik
When we currently think of computers and how
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people use them, we typically think of a system of code, most of the time in the form of images and text-based data that is readily manipulated through physical inputs, normally as a keyboard and mouse. Having the computation elements embedded within the core materials that make up space means that users will have the ability to direct the type of information and data the space receives through a novel method rather than a conventional computer interface that one might expect. New technology allows users to use nontraditional communication methods that resembles the way that we communicate with other humans. As the code stored inside the computation is designed to respond to different varieties of information exchanges, it is therefore possible for an interactive dialogue to take place between users and the space that surrounds them.
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machine; meet man
sensor array
Receives sensory data from people and the environment and translates it to other computers and devices.
items & things When environments become responsive and begin to mediate the needs of the users and the environment outside, they must facilitate communication through the physical space itself. How such a living space can describe, adapt to, or change behavior, through adjusting the conditions in which people live, particularly the communicative state is determined by today’s technology. Adaptable space is often ensnared in issues of optimization, which in this context is the act of making something as functional or effective as possible. In spatial terms this often refers to the ability of a space to meet specific user demands by being able to adapt to an optimized state to address a certain action.
Emergent Spaces / Technologik // Items & Things
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micro-controller: Receives information from sensors, controls basic motors and sends information to other computers. They mediate between digital and physical worlds.
Emergent Spaces / Technologik // Items & Things
Embedded Computation / Currently the approach of the boundry of the century is typically signalled by a frantic scramble in all fields to formulate a holistic view of the universe, the great unification theory or GUT. In the natural sciences this takes the form of two juxtaposed tendencies. One is to embrace every thing under the umbrella of evolution lor at least evolution in the form of neoDarwinism. Evolution of the chemical elements, evolution of physical costants, evolution of information, cultural evolution evolutionary theory is somehow made to explain all phenomena. The other tendency is to recruit all other developments in science, such as self-organizing systems, to expand the theory of evolution to make a new meta-theory. Overall there is a tendency to deal with complexity chaos and catastrophe in the same way; to treat natural and artificial systems equally. The optimistic view is that the current debate about the possibility of a new holistic, intuitive understanding of nature and science promises to make a significant impact towards future environmental and social problems.
When walls have ears / First language was thought to be unique, then it was the, more difficult to prove capacity for abstract thought. The ability to use tools was considered unique, until it was demonstrated that other species used tools, and then the criterion became the making of tools, and the same pattern began to repeat itself.
When walls have ears / The beginning of genetic algorithms can be traced back to the early 1950s when several biologists used computers for copies of biological systems. However. the work done in the late 1960s and early 1970s at the University of Michigan under the direction of John Holland led to genetic algorithms as they are known today. Genetic algorithms are a particular class of new evolutionary algorithms that use techniques inspired by those evolutionary biology generally defined here. Genetic algorithms are implemented whereby candidate solutions to an optimization problem evolve to yeild better solutions in the case of organisms. If a newly developing embryo becomes structurally unviable, it won’t survive natural selection. A similar process would have to be simulated in the computer to make sure that the products of virtual evolution are viable in terms of structural engineering prior to being selected by the desig’ner for their “aesthetic fitness,” This issue of designer selection brings up a discussion of shape grammars, Shape grammars are a specific class of computational production systems that generate geometric shapes, They are fascinating in that they present a basis for visual computation.
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mood flooring
A floor that rocks as hard as you do. This pizo-electric powered dance-floor is completely sustainable and responds to various environmental stimuli.
ubiquitous computation The idea of ubiquitous computation is about embedding hardware and software, information processors and coded intelligence, into all aspects of our lives. Advancements in the technology involved with hardware would free computation from our existing notions of what computers are, and allow computers and the way we use them to evolve as they become embedded into the physical fabric of our everyday lives and environments in which we live. Ubiquitous networks have the ability to physically understand how we use space, interpret this data, and respond to this data in interactive ways As technology has advanced and as computers have become smaller and cheaper, we are seeing that we now have the potential to think of space as being organized in a computational network. Objects can have both the fundamental logic and hardware to allow them to be extremely good at executing the specific tasks they were intended to do while simultaneously networking into a collective whole and controlled by an overarching logic.
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Moore’s Law / The term “Moore’s law” was coined around 1970 by the Caltech professor, VLSI pioneer and entrepreneur Carver Mead. the number of transistors that Predictions of similar increases in can fit on a chip will continue to double computer power had existed years every two years, and cost half as much prior. Alan Turing in a 1950 paper had predicted that by the turn of the millennium, computers would have a billion words of memory. Moore may have heard Douglas Engelbart, a co-inventor of the notorious mechanical computer mouse, discuss the projected downscaling of integrated circuit size in a 1960 lecture. A New York Times article published August 31, 2009, credits Engelbart as having made the prediction in 1959. Moore slightly altered the formulation of the law over time, bolstering the perceived accuracy of Moore’s law in retrospect. Most notably, in 1975, Moore altered his projection to a doubling every two years. Despite popular misconception, he is adamant that he did not predict technology doubling every 18 months. However, David House, an Intel colleague had factored in the proliferating performance of transistors to conclude that integrated circuits would double in performance every 18 months.
Emergent Spaces / Technologik // Ubiquitous Computation
moore’s law As computers advance, they becomes exponentially more powerful, less expensive and more ingrained in our culture. This trend is expected to continue far into the future.
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pixel skin: Interactive wall that mimics the movement and behaviors of people. Sensors embedded within the wall communicate with a series of microcontrollers.
Emergent Spaces / Technologik // Architectural Awareness
architectural awareness The idea of making situational use explicit has been explored at an architectural scale in numerous recent artistic projects, although these have mostly been limited to working with artificial lighting, the results are fascinating in their application, as they translate informationabout the architectural to an abstract expression. Such projects also convey a level of interaction with the individual and groups of individuals. At the core of such projects dealing specifically with human behaviors is the requirement to establish a dialogue with the users. Such a relationship requires a deep understanding of one’s own actions and others’ actions within the space, and awareness that there is some sort of dialogue with the environment itself. The environment, on the other hand, can be either an entity and/or a discrete organization of devices or systems, and the behavior can be a direct response or emergent. Users become participants either willingly or unwillingly, and their behaviors are translated not only to themselves and others within a particular space, but also to those on the outside.
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Pieces of You / A number of trends have signaled new insights into how consumer lifestyles may change in the future that are related to the dramatic increase of online shopping. There is an increasing computer literacy amongst the population due to the continuing rise in service industry employment. In addition, we must consider the previously meniioned changes in population numbers communication with space fosters a new and continuing increases in one attachment to architecture. person households. And lastly trends in the workplace are indicating that some individuals at various levels in the workforce are choosing to work less and work at home in order to devote more time to personal and family interests. All of these factors reflect an enormous increase in both technologies in the home and flexibility in the workspace. Such changing patterns of human interaction with the built environment will also force architects to come up with new solutions. It is the constant back-and-forth relationship of interadion that ultimately will lead to enhanced experience, as users and their envirol1ments remain in a constantly evolving dialogue between activities and the quality of the experience of performing these new activities.
Emergent Spaces / Technologik // Architectural Awareness
Space, structure and form are the traditional outward expressions of an architectural concept which has developed in the mind of the architect. This idea is taken further in our work. Architectural concepts are expressed as generative rules so that their evolution may be accelerated and tested. Getting Attached / Architects need to learn to explore, think about, consider and design for objects particularly suited to such new lifestyle trends, that range from programmatic and site-context response to spatial dynamics. There are a number of changes related to living trends that are expected to impact future patterns of energy consumption in both the home and the workspace. According to the US census, one-third of all school-age children in the US are, for some part of the week, latchkey kids.They go home to an unsupervised house or apartment after school. Most children are encouraged to stay at home in rooms stocked with televisions, electronic video consoles and so on. All of these increase the total energy consumption in the home. Aside from the higher penetration of communications and entertainment technologies there is a greater demand for heating and lighting in the home, and more preparation of food during the day. Homes, for instance, could soon be designed to efficiently handle the greater amounts of flexibility needed in terms of the number of people using them and the times that they are used. It is the constant cycle of reciprocal interactions that ultimately will lead to enhanced experience, as users and their environments remain in an ever evolving dialogue between activities and the quality of the experience of performing these particular activities. An environment can create a dialogue with residents based on either satisfying an interpretation of goal states or re-creating a new emergent states. We do not inhabit architectural space simply for shelter; we do so because we need the experience of space.
Communication / There are a number of reasons for telecommuting, like economic advantages, family requirements or desires, a preference for fewer social contacts, or simply a preference for the space and location. In the past, people gave priority to the demands of the workplace over their personal, family, or community interests Time spent at the workplace was not only a source of income, but was also a determinant of one’s role in the community, The workplace provided self-esteem, value, achievement and recognition. People who are cut off from the workplace environment need to discover new sources for achieVing personal satisfaction and for making meaningful social contacts. Such opportunities for remote social interaction are therefore not only necessary for pragmatic reasons but also serve an important humanistic role in our social fabric. It is the constant back-and-forth relationship of interadion that ultimately will lead to enhanced experience, as new users and their spaces remain in a constantly evolving dialogue between activities and the overall quality of the experience of performing these activities. An environment can create a dialogue with inhabitants based on either satisfying an interpretation of goal states or creating a new emergent state, a number of simple entities forming more complex behaviors based on various assumptions of desires.
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A space for everyone / Architectural space can fully take advantage of an audience locally, regionally, as well as globally by reconceptualizing the role that the physical spaces play within shaping the viewer’s experience. An approach such as this suggests that the physical environment can be interactively viewed both within the confines of the space and beyond its walls. New lifestyle trends present many architectural situations for unique and wholly unexplored applications that address today’s dynamic, flexible and constantly changing activities. An interactive architectural space can not only facilitate lifestyles and behaviors, but also influence them. Connect the dots / Many of the emerging devices in architecture are not limited to sensing and kinetic movement, and can embrace a great wealth of new tectonic innovations that can facilitate interactions through flexible or foldable LCD screens, smarter fabrics, thin-air projection technologies, and ethereal holographic projections. These innovations will all be integral to architectural programming in the future and will demand new ways of thinking about and designing the experience of space. While many of these techl1o~ogies are not physical, they do play an important role in influencing the definition and use of space and the experience of space. In many instances, a building that adapts t0 our desires can shape our experience.
Emergent Spaces / Technologik // Architectural Awareness
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organic theory
Put simply, nature is the largest laboratory that ever existed and ever will. In addressing its challenges through evolution, nature tested every field of science and engineering leading to inventions that work well and last. paradigm shifts The visionary Yoseph Bar-Cohen sums it up with these following words: “Nature has experimented with various solutions and over billions of years it has improved greatly successful ones. It has always served as a model for mimicking, and inspiration to humans in their ongoing efforts to improve their natural dispositions�.
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The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the great problems we are stuck grappling with. Animals plants, and microbes being the consummate engineers. Nature has found what works, what lasts, what is necessary and not necessary, and consequently, what is most appropriate.
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golden ratios Both visual and acoustic considerations typically also behoove physical configuration changes that need to be spatially optimized. Whether the issue is partition walls or the direction of a chair or table or desk, it is important to understand and accommodate an inclusive range of humanistic considerations on top of the more pragmatic spatial forces that underlie most objectives. There is great potential for applications that arise from understanding what an architectural space or object is currently doing and how it can do it better. In other words, designers should take an existing design and ask how issues of privacy and public needs can be dynamically addressed while spatial sharing is concurrently optimized.
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Natural progressions / Janine Benyus illuminates biomimicry from a sustainable standpoint in terms of three levels that accomodate form, process, and system. The first level of biomimicry is the echoing of natural form. For instance, you may mimic the hooks and barbules in an owl’s feather to create a fabric that opens anywhere along its surface. Or you can imitate the frayed edges that grant the owl its silent flight. The second level is the mimbuildings will mimic systems in nature icking of natural process, or how with respect to environmental mediation things are made in nature. Beynus explains it through the following analogy. The owl feather self-assembles at body temperature without toxins or high pressures, by way of nature’s very own chemistry. The unfurling field of green chemistry attempts to mimic these benign natural recipes and formulae. Shaping our experience / If you make a bio-inspired fabric using green chemistry, but you have workers weaving it In a sweatshop, loading it onto pollution spewing trucks, and shipping it to vast distances you’ve missed the point. To mimic a natural system you must ask how each product fits into a particular role; is it necessary, is it beautiful, is it part of a food web of industries, and can It be transported, sold and reabsorbed in ways that foster a sustainable and healthy economy.
Emergent Spaces / Organic Theory // Golden Ratios
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Transition towards the biological perspective The future of architecture is positioned as a transitional phenomenon with respect to a movement from a mechanical, to a biological paradigm. 25%
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Emergent Spaces / Organic Theory // Golden Ratios
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the facade evolves The foundation of shape grammars in architectural design were first intro足duced by George Stiny and James Gips in a seminal article in 1971. With shape gram足mars, forms can be created that are not stored in the computer previously. They were one of the earliest algorithmic systems for creating and understanding designs directly through computations with shapes, rather than indirectly through computations with text or symbols, Shape grammars have been studied particularly in computer aided archi足tectural design, as they provide a formalism to create new innovative designs. There is great potential for applications that arise from understanding what an architectural space or object is currently doing and how it can do it better. In other words, designers should take an existing design and ask how issues of privacy and public needs can be dynamically addressed while spatial sharing is concurrently optimized.
Buildings that change shape in response to environmental cues. The facades are sensitive to heat, light and temperature and move to accomodate the people inside.
dancing ladies
Evolutionary systems / A number of directions have signaled new insights into how consumer lifestyles may change in the future that are proportional to the dramatic increase of online shopping. There is an increasing computer literacy amongst the populus due to the prevalent rise in service the aim is to achieve the symbiotic industry focused employment. behavior and metabolic balance Additionally, we must consider the changes in population numbers and continuing increases in single-person house holds. And lastly various trends in the workplace are indicating that some individuals at various levels in the workforce are choosing to work less and work at home in order to devote more time to personal and interests shared by the whole family. All of these factors reflect an enormous increase in both technologies in the home and flexibility in the workspace. Changing patterns of people with the built environment will also force architects to come up with new solutions. It is the constant back and forth relationship of interaction that ultimately will lead to enhanced experience, as users and their environments remain in a constantly evolving dialogue between activities and the quality of the experience of performing these activit’ies.Space, structure and form are the traditional outward expressions of an
Emergent Spaces / Organic Theory // The Facade Evolves
architectural concept which has developed in the mind of the architect. This idea is taken further in our work. Architectural concepts areexpressed as flowing rules so that their evolution may be accelerated and tested. The basic rules are described in a new genetic language which produces a code-script of new instructions for form generation. Biomimicry / Architects need to learn to explore, think about, and design for applications particularly suited to such new lifestyle trends. ranging from pro grammatic and site-context response toward spatial dynamics. There are a number of changes related to living trends that are expected to dramatically impact fut,ure patterns of energy consumption in both the home and the workspace. Particular approaches suggest that the physical environment can be interactively viewed both within the confines of the space and beyond its walls. New lifestyle trends present many architectural situations for unique and wholly unexplored applications that will address today’s dynamic, flexible, and constantly changing activities that influence every moment. All of these increase the consumption of energy in the home. Aside from the higher vast penetration of communications and entertainment technologies there is a greater demand for heating and lighting in the home, and more preparation of food during the day. Homes, for instance, eventually be designed to efficiently handle the greater amounts of flexibility needed in terms of the number of people using them and the times that they are used. It is the constant back-and-forth relationship of interadion that ultimately will lead to enhanced experience, as users and their environments remain in a constantly evolving dialogue between activities and the quality of the experience of performing these activit’ies. An environment can create a dialogue with inhabitants based on emergent behaviors.
Adaptations / There are a number of reasons for telecommuting, including economic advantages, family requirements or desires, a preference for fewer social contacts, or simply a preference for the space and location. In the past, people gave priority to the demands of the workplace over their personal family, or community interests Time spent at the workplace was not only a source of income, but was also a determinant of one’s role in the community. The workplace provided self-esteem, value, success and recognition. People who are cut off from the workplace environment need to discover new sources for achieving personal satisfaction and for making meaningful social contacts. An environment can create a dialogue with residents based on either satisfying an interpretation of goal states or creating a new emergent status. A number of simple entities forming more complex behaviors based on ambiguous assumptions of desires. manipulated, directed, or coerced.
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Emergent Spaces / Organic Theory // The Facade Evolves
Natural Fit / Technology will allow future buildings to mimic the sophisticated energy management systems of nature and allow the building to change its enclosure and ventilation systems as required to respond to variations in temperature, wind, day light and moisture conditions in addition, sustainable buildings of the future will reflect the local climate conditions and building materials will renect our l values as social creatures. Central to biomlmicry within the context of space is an understanding of the process by which organisms grow and develop. This area of study is refered to as developmental biology and includes growth, differentiation, and morphogenesis. In terms of adapting the area of morphogenesis, which is concerned with the processes that control the organized spatial distribution of cells, is particularly relevant. In the human embryo, the change from a cluster of nearly identical cells to one with structured tissues and organs is controlled by the genetic “program� and can be modified by environmental factors. Bones, for instance, which are full of living cells, can heal and adapt to their environment. In particular the cells will rebuild the structure to adapt to the load it carries; a bone can change its physical shape after a fracture that heals out of position, so that the load is adequately supported.
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working with nature Architecture of stone and brick has always been the one sphere of life that embodied a sense of timelessness, permanence, and massive inertia. Edifices of stone resist time and define a pattern of space for thousands of years We no longer build our world in stone for a number of reasons. The notion of timelessness, however, has stayed rooted in the profession, its thinking. and what people expect to see embodied in new architectural horizons. Future architecture, in all forms of manifestation, represents a gradual shift away from that mindset.There is great potential for applications that arise from understanding what an architectural space or object is currently doing and how it can do it better. In other words, designers should take an existing design and ask how issues of privacy and public needs can be dynamically addressed while spatial sharing is concurrently optimized.
kinetic actuator
Based on the interwoven nature of nano-molecules, these actuators are inspired by natural shapes and make it possible for buildings to alter their shape.
Emergent Spaces / Organic Theory // Working with Nature
Natural progressions / Architects are beginning to give up their millennial allegiance to the notion of timelessness. They are beginning to accommodate real-time responsiveness into a network of local forces and varying global conditions in a time-based environment. There is a crystallization of a desire for architecture to be thought of as an evolutionary, and interactive being. Future architecture is not about technology, but about reveal足ing new possibilities of global relationships between architecture and people in forming a symbiotic noosphere. Architecture is establishing new boundries. Shaping our experience / A number of architects and philosophers are beginning to formulate the basis for a physically dynamic architecture that arises out of human needs and that is supported by an j1mproved understanding of biological systems. We are beginning to see numerous examples in product design, for example, the Nike Free 5.0 athletic shoe whereby the articu足lated sole results from the study of athletes running barefoot. Through reproducing the performative strengths of a biological model such as the foot, the shoe adopts the range of motion, flex and grips of the human foot, rather than mirror its form. Another example is modarchitecture is establishing new eling the echolocation of bats boundries, the future is unlimited in darkness and adapting that functionality into a cane for the visually impaired. From an architectural standpoint. it is compelling to imagine such Ideas transferred beyond the product into the very fabric of our built environments that we share.
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Emergent Spaces / Organic Theory // Working with Nature
our space
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The fascinating potential future of evolutionary systems as an integral part of actual built form is still in its infancy due to our current state of technology
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a new epic Architecture of stone and brick has always been the one sphere of life that embodied some sense of timelessness, permanence, and massive inertia. Edifices of stone resist time and define a pattern of space for thousands of years We no longer build our world in stone for a number of reasons. The notion of timelessness, however, has stayed rooted in the profession, its thinking. and what people expect to see embodied in architecture. The future of architecture, in all forms of manifestation represents a gradual shift away from that mindset. Architects are beginning to give up their millennial allegiance to the notion of timelessness. They are beginning to accommodate real-time responsiveness into a network of local forces and global conditions in a time-based space. There is a crystallization of a desire for architecture to be thought of as an active, evolutionary, and interactive being. Interactive architecture IS not about technology, but about revealing new possibilities of global relationships between architecture and people in forming a symbiotic noosphere. A building is a network for living in. What If we are able to expand the ways by which we see, hear, touch and, sense information? What If we can release more people from the screen for more hours by distributing the interface around the architectural environment? What if architecture as a whole becomes a distributed, immersive interface to connect us to the larger world? What if architecture becomes a spatial synesthetic pump to channel, amplify, and process the temporal flows of digital information? What if, in a break with the past. walls. roofs. and floors transcend being mere delimiters and separators of contiguous space, to becoming connectors of global telespace? Interactive architecture begins to question the actual foundations of architecture by embracing physical and telematic space-time. So the
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