Updated graphics for the BLOOMv2 project. The creators are re-investigating the design of this prototype, and will soon begin brainstorming alternative applications for its use. Although the Inconvenient Studio’09 is finished, the information gained from its rigorous activities and discussions lives on…
All the work is brilliant and gorgeous! My initial’broken record’response is: how can I make these technologies and one of these constructions morph into the smallest ‘sheltered dwelling place’ wherein, one child, one adult at greatest risk, can, somewhere in the world, dwell and/or sleep safely, even ‘poetically’ for a moment, a night, a lifetime?
Secondly. It does not matter if I or anyone believes architecture should ‘respond’ to humans through these technologies and philosophies. The cat is out of the bag. Those who are interested in and working with these technologies will continue. It cannot be known how these experiments and investigations will help hummanity and the planet. Someone once said pejoratively about ‘design by committee’ that he didn’t want to start designing a motorcycle and end up with a washing machine. Someone else said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. The point is: we don’t know what we might discover/invent along the way looking for one thing and accidently discovering something else entirely different and new that is useful to hummanity. A camel is a supreme design response to it’s environment. A washing machine might be more useful than a motorcycle.
Great designs can come from a single author, or a large complex, self organizing team.
Check out what we’re doing:
ShapeShift
———-
http://www.caad-eap.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/caadeap
ShapeShift is an experiment in future possibilities of architectural materialization. This project explores the potential application of electro-active polymer (EAP) at an architectural scale. EAP offers a new relationship to space built through its unique combination of qualities. It is an ultra-lightweight, flexible material with the ability to change shape without the need for mechanical actuators. As a collaboration between the chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ETHZ) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), shape-shift bridges gaps between advanced techniques in architectural design / fabrication and material science as well as pushing academic research towards real world applications.