John Bell, director of FXV Design and unit 9 master at London’s Architectural Association, makes hybrid environments at the interface of architecture and digital culture. FXV’s work explores the possibility that architecture is just as much a media event as it is bricks and mortar. Above is an image of FXV’s recent proposal for the RIBA ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ competition which aimed to reduce the dissecting effect of the viaducts that are in abundance around central south london.

FXV also run a blog of their continuing work and have their entire book ‘ workrestandplay ‘ available to view online (although too low-res to read).

Here’s one of the smaller projects that I managed to get some information about from the book. Expect to see more of their interactive architecture once I get hold of a paper copy of the book.

Trampoline

Trampoline tiles as well as pads generate light and/or sound through the variation of pressure and lenght of stay on an individual pad. The frequency of step is transformed into a modulation of current. Thus motion can be translated into sounds or light and speaks of interaction between the intensity of movement and lenght of stay. The ephemerality of a projected duration becomes a reading of the level of interaction between ground and user.