Marco Lurati

Seven Automatic Architecture

Moving architecture, play and technology

Abstract

The Atelier of Riccardo Blumer at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland, proposed a two-semester project which it involved the students in conceiving and building seven interactive architectures as an exercise to explore the possibility of an automatic movement and thought that a machine could develop and freely apply it in the field of architecture.

The students investigated a simple architectonical theme like a door, a wall, a path, the limit between spaces, and the structure. They associated it with a thought about the influence of physical phenomena on rapport with the body by using electronics, coding, and crafting.

The result of those associations has been represented with that seven architectonical installations where the body of the visitors could create an interaction with them. From this interaction, the mediation between the primary topics of architecture could emerge through their confrontation with the technologies used.

Two projects were exhibited at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice in 2018.

Datas

year

2017

scope

Academy of Architecture USI, Atelier Blumer, technical collaborator

staff

Riccardo Blumer, Tommaso Alessandrini, Matteo Borghi, Ettore Contro and Simone Majocchi

students

Lorela Arapi, Andrea Cappellaro, Gael Chiappini, Stefano Clerici, Beatrice Dogliani, Mattia Fornoni, Flavio Guidi, Rinaldo Makaj, Stephen Okoh, Marco Pisano, Guglielmo Spada, Milena Testini, Marco Vallario, Georgios Voutsis

links

Domus article

process

The first part of the project focused on exploring various topics and learning technical skills so the students could get an idea of what it could have been possible to build and how. They then focused on finding the association between an architectonical topic and how to make it feel to the public by using the technology applied to an architecture they also had to develop.

The first semester ended with a functioning scaled model for each project.

  • Wall: it explorse the theme of the wall-limit by generating a thin film of soap (like soap bubbles)
  • Bridge: the path generated by the sequence of moving strings changes according to the person traversing it
  • Echo: the generation of varoius path using is constantly changing when the white spheres are suspendend from the air coming from below generating an enclosure
  • Spider: the percepion between different level and interpretation between architecture, form and skeleton is constantly changed with the deformation of the structure
  • Cube: it explores the perception of boundaries even when made by ephemeral elements like water vapour

The second semester has been about building the projects on a 1:1 scale. For each installation, many difficulties of various sorts had to be faced and solved (physics, electronics, mechanics, budget, time, code, ...). With the students and the atelier staff, we managed to find a solution that could solve most of the issues.

Two installations (Wall and The Space) were exhibited at the Biennale of Venice during the 16th edition in 2018.

skills

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