Plinthos / mab architecture

Plinthos / mab architecture

Greek architects, mab architecture, have shared with us their interactive, multi sensory pavilion, Plinthos. Additional images, multiple videos and a description of this visually striking project after the break.

Concept: Clay brick has been one of the most commonly used building materials, which exists for thousands of years. It has always been a symbol for solidity and reliability, for human scale, and in many cases it has also been admired for its sensual qualities.

With plinthos pavilion we want to explore these same characteristics and add another quality – transparency, something that is normally not associated with clay brick. 21816 bricks are used to build a continuous floor and walls. Usually hidden perforated sides of the bricks are exposed thus creating permeable surfa ce, which allow the flow of air, light and sound.

Interactivity:

Plinthos pavilion is a room that breathes. Visual transparency created by the perforated brick wall, becomes the channel of interaction between the visitors and the structure. A constant background sound-scape and an expanding RGB light communicate through the wall, transforming the structure into a living organism in which the visitor is completely involved.

The interactive mechanisms are engaged by touching or shaking stem light fittings installed in the floor. A camera records the movement of these fittings and transmits it to a computer. The computer transforms the visual signal into frequencies and finally translates them into a visual and audio installation. Each of the stem light fittings triggers a distinctive interplay of sounds recorded from the pavilion construction phase and affect the color changing lighting performance. This generates layering of interweaving media reactions that engulfs the visitor from multiple directions and let him/her become the performer and the observer at the same time.

Plinthos pavilion is a multi-sensory experience. It binds the tactile emotion of the rough brick surface, as a memory of ancient construction, with new technologies which stimulate the sense of the passing of time, relating the past with the future.