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 in witch 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 the architecture.
The students investigated a simple architectonical theme like a door, a wall, a path, the limit between spaces, the structure and they associated it with a thought about the influence of physical phenomenas in rapport with the body, by using the electronics, coding and crafting.
The result of those associations has been represented with those seven architectonical installation where the body of the visitors could create an interaction with them and from this interaction the mediation between the primary topics of the architecture could emerge through their confrontation with the technologies used.
Two of the projects has been 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
skills
- Mechanics
- Electronics
- Processing coding
- Arduino coding
- Interaction design
process
The first part of the project consisted in exploring various topics and learning some technical skills so that the students could get and idea of what it could have been possible to build and how. They then focused in finding the association between an architectonical topic and how to make it feel to the public by using the technology applied to an architecture that 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 build the projects in 1:1 scale for real. For each single installation many difficulties of various sorts had to be faced and solved (physics, electronics, mechanics, budget, time, code, ...). With the students and the staff of the atelier we managed to find a solution that could solve most of the issues.
Two of the installations (Wall and The Space) had been exhibited in the Biennale of Venice during the 16th edition in 2018.