Together we will bring architecture to life. Our hands-on laboratory will unfreeze buildings and create functioning interactive environments. The class offers an immersive introduction to the issues of responsive kinetic architecture and the techniques of designing with electronic circuits. By the end of the semester, students will build a range of exciting full-scale demonstrations for an exhibit at the school or at a New York gallery. We will use the standard building blocks of inexpensive sensors, simple microcontrollers, and shape memory alloy actuators to jump-start the process of designing with electronics. Students will be able to use these modular components without extensive training or a laboratory infrastructure. No prior experience is necessary. Dynalloy, the manufacturer of Flexinol shape memory alloy actuators, has agreed to donate materials for the class.
The shift toward more expansive forms of digital production within the design and construction industry affords opportunities of not only reconfiguring the relationships between the key players, but also incorporating industry sectors not typically associated with building construction. At the core of this shift is the integration of communication through various forms of digital networks, CNC fabrication being just one among many, with the ambition of developing a comprehensive, well organized, easily accessible, and parametrically adaptable body of information that coordinates the process from design through a building’s lifecycle. This is the broader context for the goals of the Avery Digital Fabrication Lab.
Beginning with the premise that architectural elements might move in response to their environments, we conducted research on, designed, and built a full-scale kinetic surface. Our system collects input through an array of sensors, processes the input through microcontrollers, and triggers local and global movement of a human-scale surface. In contrast to other kinetic wall projects, our surface is thin, lightweight, and transparent, with no motors or mechanical parts. Our system of movement is contained within our surface: we embed Dyanlloy Flexinol wires in cast silicone and they contract due to electrical stimulus, causing gills cut into the surface to open and close.
