Surface Change

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in exploringthe capacity of built spaces to respond dynamically and adapt to changesin the external and internal environments and to different patterns of use.Such explorations are technologically and socially motivated, in responseto recent technological and cultural developments. Advances in embeddedcomputation, material design, and kinetics on the technological side, andincreasing concerns about sustainability, social and urban changes on thecultural side, provide a background for responsive/interactive architecturalsolutions that have started to emerge.This paper presents an ongoing design research project driven by an interestin adaptive systems in nature and a desire to explore the capacity of builtspaces to respond dynamically. The paper underlines architecture’s inseparablelink to technology and projects a vision of architecture that, through itscapacity to change and adapt, becomes an integrated, responsive, adaptiveand productive participant within larger ecologies.The SKiN project consists of small scale prototypes of an adaptive kineticsurface capable of spatial modulation and response to environmentalstimuli. The emphasis is on the nature of material systems in the builtenvironment and their capacity for change and adaptation. Elements, structure,surface and performance of the developed networked kinetic materialsystem are designed as integrated layers that make up a “tissue” capable ofaccommodating dynamic nature of human occupation.The “Soft” Kinetic Network (SKiN) surface is organized around the networkof embedded “muscle” wires that change shape under electric current. Thenetwork of wires provides for a range of motions and facilitates surfacetransformations through soft and muscle like movement. The material systemdeveloped around the wire network is variable and changes its thickness,stiffness, or permeability within its continuous composite structure.The variability in the material system enables it to behave differently withinsurface regions; to vary the speed and degree of movement; to vary surfacetransparency; to enable other levels of performance such as capture of heatproduced by the muscle wire and distribution of heat within the surfaceregions. The main idea is that variability of the material system can bringus closer to the seamless material integration found in biological organisms.The focus on seamless material integration and capturing of emitted energyhints at our broader goal that architectural intervention should find amore productive place within larger ecologies. I am very much interestedin suspending a challenge of finding a non-permeable and clearly definedboundary between inside and outside in exchange for a surface that fostersconstant flow of information, matter and energy. This project is situatedbetween several disciplinary territories. By exploring theories, techniquesand tools of architecture, engineering, material science and cybernetics thegoal is to develop technologies and designs that are capable of transformingstatic building components into active responsive surfaces that produceadded functionalities in architectural and urban environments.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1