NEVEL – Moving Labyrinth

NEVEL is a moving labyrinth (11 X 11 m) consisting of 9 programmable walls able to rotate 360°. Architecture comes alive, walls become doors, spaces open and close, visitors are locked up and set free again.

via Regine at wmmna

3 comments January 31st, 2006

pie-in-the-sky or the future of wireless networks?

Why put up costly cell-phone towers in thinly populated areas, when a few balloons would do? In North Dakota, former Gov. Ed Schafer is backing a plan to loft wireless network repeaters on balloons high above the state to fill gaps in cellular coverage. “I know it sounds crazy,” said Schafer, who now heads Extend America, a wireless telecommunications company. “But it works in the lab.”

The company behind this system, Space Data, has launched thousands of the free-floating balloons in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico over the past year. The wireless data network they encompass tracks oil company vehicles and monitors the production of oil wells and pipelines,

“To cover every square mile of North Dakota, it would take 1,100 cell towers,” Schafer said. “We can do the whole state with three balloons.”

If successful, the hydrogen-filled balloons could be drifting across the stratosphere above North Dakota this summer, providing cellular coverage at a tiny fraction of the cost of building cellular towers. Up to 20 miles above the earth, well above commercial airliner pathways, steady stratospheric winds would push the latex balloons across the state at about 30 mph. Each balloon would deliver voice and data service to an area hundreds of miles in diameter.

“Nine balloons would always be in the air, with some going up, some going down, and some in the middle,” Schafer said.

The balloons swell from six feet in diameter to 30 feet after they gain altitude. Once a balloon leaves the state, its toaster-size communications pod would jettison, deploy a parachute and fall to earth, where it would signal its position.

via Wired

3 comments January 31st, 2006

Transmaterial: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment

If your building interactive architecture, its obviously not just about understanding digital technology, you have to have an understanding of all the materials in construction that would lend themselves to interactive spaces. I’ve just got hold of this book Transmaterial: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment and I’d recommended it to anyone interested in particularily interior design or interactive installation design. To support the book is an interesting website with the occasional material getting shown online. Here’s their blurb ‘With more than 200 materials, organized by category, described, pictured, and annotated with technical and sourcing information, this catalog is an essential tool for any architect or designer interested in keeping up with the rapid developments in the field of materials, looking for a source of inspiration for their designs, or just eager to get their hands on real materials in an effort to understand the incredibly innovative palette now available to us.’

Website

Add comment January 30th, 2006

MIT Smart Cities Group, Greden & Arbona – Fab Tree Hab

So whats the interactive architecture in this? Well its the slowest form of interaction I’ve posted so far but the process of pleaching gives the patient house builder the ability to share with the tree the role of architect rather than the architect taking entire control of the final outcome of the building.

Growing a home from living trees instead of building a home from felled timber is the goal of an architect from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mitchell Joachim, part of the MIT Media Lab’s Smart Cities Group, along with ecological engineer Lara Greden and architect Javier Arbona, propose a home that is actually an ecosystem.

The Fab Tree Hab goes beyond sustainable housing and so-called green design — building with materials that have a low impact on the environment and human health.

“Not only does it do zero damage, but it will hopefully clean the air,” said Joachim.

The habitat is based on an ancient gardening method known as pleaching, which weaves together tree branches to form living archways, lattices or screens.

via archinect

1 comment January 25th, 2006

Theo Jansen’s – Evolving Species

Video one of Theo’s Creatures Walking

Theo Jansen spoke at the Bartlett School of Architecture last week leaving his audience of students and professors all gasping for air with excitement, full of new ideas about the potential of even the simplest of objects when passionately investigated. I had my tongue hanging out of my mouth dreaming up new projects for my interactive architecture research.

Theo is a rare breed of passionate technologist who understands not just the potential of digital technology but the potential of even the seemingly mundane materials we all take for granted. I’m also excited to hear that he will be building one of these incredible creatures in Trafalgar Square, London with its very own sand pit.

For well over a decade Theo Jansen has rigorously experimented ‘with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature.’ He talked about how protein acts as the key element in the structure and functioning of all living cells and that he wanted to use his own protein (plastic tubes) to act as the building block for his very own creations.

Starting out initially on his Atari STe, he programmed evolving species that tested how to build walking legs from 7 varying lengths and through natural selection was able to find quite accurate measurements of the perfect ratio of configuration.

The next stage in the evolution of these creature’s mechanics was to build prototypes using just the plastic tubes and test them in real world environments. Many years later he has created fantastic walking creatures that have evolved in complexity but still using this simple building block.

Video of Animaris Geneticus

Video of Animaris Currens Ventosa waving

Further developments have used wind energy to transfer energy into the creatures giving them the ability to walk up and down the beach he tests them out on. He then began giving them the ability to pick up sand and water so that they could tell if they were about to walk off into the sea or get stuck in the dryer sand higher up the beach. His creations are now able to make decisions on their environment and avoid hazardous environments much like evolving species learn to do.

natural selection hasn’t favored this species

He has started using more advanced air systems which he hopes the creatures will be able to use to collect air themselves and compress it to power pressurized pneumatic devices. What’s most exciting is that he has devised a system of valves that act as yes/no logic gates for the pressurized air which could eventually be built up to process simple logic and develop a primitive form of intelligence. In all seriousness he suggested that eventually he wants these creatures to be able to think for themselves and reproduce.

Some might assume that these ideas are verging on the side of crazy but what I love is his passion for dreaming the impossible and seemingly managing to progress towards it with every new mutation in his species development.

A Render of one of his future visions

I will bring the dates of his creatures appearing in Trafalgar Square to you as soon as I find out.

Theo’s Website

2 comments January 24th, 2006

Simplicity Project – Interview with John Maeda

Sascha Pohflepp, a Digital Arist, blogger for plugimi and wmmna and writer for de:bug magazine, has recently interviewed John Maeda about the Simplicity project. If you don’t already know of John Maeda then I highly recommend you get to know about him. Hes a Professor at MIT who descibes himself as a visual artist / computer scientist. He writes regularily about Simplicity in designing for the future.

SP
In some distant future, might having a luxury life mean having a very non-digital life, less technology and less features?

JM
Well, I mean it’s kind of a paradox. We all want simple things when we start, but when we live longer with it, we want more. So it really is about how to design things that are able to change. People have talked for years about adaptable interfaces and so forth – it hasn’t happened yet. But when that happens… (Read Full Article)

If your interested in John Maeda’s work I highly recommend his Book Creative Code which shows the work of Maeda and his students from the last seven years of the Aesthetics and Computation Group at MIT

Add comment January 21st, 2006