omnispace

Shapeshifters

Architects are developing shape-shifting buildings that function like living systems, altering their shape in response to changing weather conditions or to the way people use them. If successful, "Responsive structures" will monitor their internal and external environment and change form to suit any situation.

Above is a full-scale prototype of an "actuated tensegrity" structure. This prototype was built from cast aluminum pieces, and the structure is programmable and responsive to its surrounding environment. At the Office for Robotic Architectural Media & The Bureau for Responsive Architecture, Tristan d'Estree Sterk is working on shape-changing "building envelopes" using a system of rods and wires manipulated by festo's pneumatic "muscles" that serve as the building's skeleton, forming the wall stucture.

Hospital of the Future

Evelina's Childrens Hospital by Michael Hopkins
Hugh Pearman from Nov 17 2005 Sunday Times writes: Hospitals are the buildings that architecture forgot. They are quick-turnaround human repair shops, driven by targets set by politicians and accountants. Despite decades of firm evidence that a well-designed, agreeable hospital environment actually helps people to get better quicker, how many examples do you know like that?

So it is good to find a new one that is streets ahead of the bog-standard product, yet costs the same. The £60m Evelina childrens' hospital in London, by architect Sir Michael Hopkins, actually manages to raise your spirits. It's one of the best new hospitals to arrive for quite some time, costs the same per square foot as your average public-finance-initiative nightmare and is designed by architects who have never previously done a hospital at all. You can't help thinking there's a lesson in this for all those who commission healthcare buildings.

Red Open House

As part of the London Design Festival, on 22 September the Design Council's RED unit opens its doors and invites you to drop in and meet the team, hear about their approach and exchange ideas. The focus of the day is RED's approach to Transformation Design. In this context they will share recent work, including ideas on ageing and new services for older people, and the outcomes of 'Kitchen Cabinet' - a short project looking at how to better connect people and politicians.

Experience Architecture

Experience Music Project by Frank Gehry
Experience Architecture unites narrative content and media technology to offer a dynamic new approach to the built environment. This design orientation focuses on the guest experience, and highlights the potential for architects to integrate media, information, and other forms of content into their building vocabulary. It’s influencing a wide range of commercial and cultural building types, from retail and brand environments to museums, libraries, and civic spaces across the country. Experience Architecture is not a style, but rather an emerging set of design values that confront architects with issues of substance, and the ability of their work to express ideas and emotions.

Z Island Kitchen

When architect Zaha Hadid was asked to design a kitchen by DuPont and Ernestomeda for the Milan Furniture Fair, the chances were that it would be very special, but it’s hard to imagine how delighted DuPont must have been with the result, which not only showcases the company’s remarkable design material Corian to perfection, but has just gone on display in the Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of a special exhibition celebrating Hadid's equally remarkable worldwide projects. The Z. Island is equipped with numerous futuristic features such as embedded heating membranes, touch control panels, sound activators and scent dispensers, LED lighting and a multimedia entertainment system, including a flat screen and an Apple Mac Mini for serving iTunes. Such has been the interest in the kitchen that Ernestomeda is now offering the kitchen as a special, on-request production.

Future Studio

Transgenic Zoo by Peter Yeadon
Transgenic Zoo is an ongoing case study which explores the architectural implications of  nanobiotechnology. "We're already designing new forms of life and new classes of substance," says Yeadon referring to cloning, genetically modified food and nanotechnologies. "So, how can architecture acknowledge this era of living products?" The Transgenic Zoo would be situated in Toronto - the existing zoo relocated downtown and enhanced with bioengineered plants and animals. The bioengineered creatures are already available: we have injected jellyfish genes into plants to make glow in the dark trees, cloned goats, etc.

Yeadon argues that architecture can no longer ignore the achievements of disciplines that are creating new forms of life and are altering the fundamental properties of matter. As in the past, the scientific innovations that surround us today will imminently inspire a new spirit in architecture.”

Viewing Nanoscale

via NanoArchitecture: Ever wonder what a water molecule looks like? Take a moment and imagine one. Are you picturing two letters and a subscript numeral? Are you picturing three spheres, red and white, connected to form a chunky boomerang? Do you see a mysterious fuzzy cloud of electrons and three infinitesimally small nuclei? In the current issue of NanoToday David S. Goodsell provides a great overview of the imagery that is making the invisible world comprehensible.

NanoHouse

The NanoHouse™ Initiative, conceived in 2002 by Dr Carl Masens at the Institute for Nanoscale Technology and visualised and implemented by architect James Muir, has proven a successful method of explaining what nanotechnologies are and how they work; e.g. how the latest technology windows clean themselves, how tiles might resist build up of soap scum, or timber surfaces resist UV damage. In the building industry, nanotechnology provides a whole new palette of materials that could potentially have profound affects on building design. For instance, in the near future, glass can be used more liberally if it is optically tuned to block heat and UV. It would be possible to construct a building with many more, larger windows than is currently viable, since heat can be kept out and UV photo-damage prevented.

Nano Architecture

Nanoarchitecture is an online resource for architects and designers focusing on the architectural implications of nanotechnology. Their mission: to inform architects about nanotechnology; to track emerging developments in nanotechnology that will revolutionize design, and to feature works that are enabled by nanotechnology.

Living Glass

Beginning with the premise that architectural elements might move in response to the environment, the Living Glass project by David Benjamin and Soo-In Yang uses a shape memory alloy to open and close the surface like gills. To achieve this, they embedded Flexinol wires in cast silicone; the wires contract due to an electrical stimulus, causing gills to cut into the surface to open and close. With minor changes the system could be tuned for environmental control, detecting carbon dioxide in a room and in multiple grapefruit-sized zones, and “breathe” when levels are high. Here, movement promotes health by allowing air flow when needed, and it provides information by signaling a high carbon dioxide level, which is normally invisible.