Mit Senseable City Lab - Local Warming

LOCAL WARMING A project for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale MIT Senseable City Lab / March 2014

LOCAL WARMING WHERE

Local Warming is one of a select few projects invited to install at the International Exhibition of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by architect Rem Koolhaas. Local Warming explores the future of energy and climate control: how new motion tracking technologies and dynamic heating could improve the energy efficiency of our buildings by orders of magnitude. Local Warming will be one of the key installations, filling a room at the center of the main Italian Pavilion on the Giardini.

The Venice Architecture Biennale is a bi-annual international exhibition in which architects, designers and researchers showcase their work – almost the Olympics of architecture. In 2012, the 13th edition, Common Ground, drew 178,000 visitors and 119 participants from around the world, and was covered in thousands of media outlets. Renowned Dutch architect and theorist Rem Koolhaas (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) is the director and curator for this year’s 14th edition, titled “Fundamentals,” a pioneering and comprehensive investigation of architecture’s past, present and future. The theme will focus on the main elements of architecture – including Floor, Wall, Door and Hearth – where Local Warming has been chosen to offer a vision of the future of the Hearth. Situated within the main Central Pavilion of the Giardini, the project will be revealed at the Vernissage on June 4 (global press preview on the 5 and 6, Official Opening on 7) and will be on display until November 23.

WHY

WHAT

Large quantities of energy are wasted every day on empty offices, empty rooms, and partially occupied buildings – spaces that are constantly heated by automated centralized systems. New technology is emerging to solve the asymmetry between human occupancy and energy use, on the backbone of networked and digitally-integrated hardware. Intelligent thermostats synch with smartphones and detect use patterns, to better control temperature over time. Going one step further, Local Warming proposes the same degree of thermal control over space – that is, directing heat where people are located. Sophisticated motion tracking and autonomous control systems accurately synchronize infrared heating units to provide immediate personal climates, as an individual thermal cloud follows each user’s motion through space. Local Warming accommodates preferences in comfort – the system learns from individualized user interactions and tailors heat accordingly. By doing this, it is people being heated – not ambient empty space – and energy efficiency is improved by orders of magnitude. Beyond its global visibility at the Venice Biennale, Local Warming will continue as an ongoing exploration at MIT: the project promises significant potential in terms of research, technology and commercial valorization.

The project will be an installation of 90 infrared lenses, integrated motion tracking and digital control systems – hanging in a grid near the ceiling of the room. As the visitor enters the space and picks up a symbolic object tag, Local Warming will sense his presence and focus the lenses to cast heat directly onto him. Warmth will follow as he moves throughout the space, and even allow sharing heat with others. Local Warming will present a captivating, tangible and social experience as participants engage with their climate directly, and the impact of new technologies – within both daily life and on the collective urban scale – will be brought to light through visualizing a new paradigm of sustainable, localized and personal climate control.

As our sponsor partner participates directly with MIT in the project – and Senseable City Lab’s broader research towards the future of climate control – they will be recognized and named prominently in the exhibition room, as well as in print material for the biennale (publicity matter, online and in the official catalogue) and on the Senseable City Lab project website.

LOCAL WARMING A project for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale developed by MIT Senseable City Lab

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“

In the winter, family members gathered ‘round the fireplace — which was the only source of heat and light. Here, the children studied, the parents exchanged news of the day, and Grandma worked at her embroidery. The hearth held the extended family together. Then pipes for delivering energy were put in-electrical wiring and central heating ducts. Family members could be warm and have light to read by everywhere. The fire was no longer kindled, except as a kind of nostalgic entertainment on festive occasions... The fireside circle could no longer serve as social glue. The old social fabric — tied together by enforced commonalities of location and schedule — no longer coheres.

What shall replace it?

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Bill Mitchell, e-topia, 2000

LOCAL WARMING A project for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale developed by MIT Senseable City Lab

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VENICE BIENNALE INSTALLATION 1 Grotto – Bolomor Cave 2 Book – History of the Hearth 3 Local Warming Wa ll

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Wall 2

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Italian Pavilion

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LOCAL WARMING A project for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale developed by MIT Senseable City Lab

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PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

MIT Entrance Installation

Local Warming Lens

Local Warming Emissive Surface

Venice Biennale Ceiling Lenses

LOCAL WARMING A project for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale developed by MIT Senseable City Lab

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