Responsive/Interactive Architecture

Enriching Urban Spaces with Interactive/

Entertaining Lighting
 What is prescribed architecture?.

Ex: Beijing National Aquatics

Center (Lighting)

Architecture as media:
the evolution What is responsive architecture?.

Ex: UN Studio’s Galleria

The prescribed Department Store façade in
Seoul (Lighting)

The responsive
Ex: Sony Center am Potsdamer
Platz | Funkturm Berlin (Lighting)
The interactive

In the age of knowledge, architecture is the storyteller.

 What is interactive architecture?.

Ex: UN Studio’s La Defense

project in the Netherlands
(Lighting)
Architecture as media:
the evolution Ex: Thomas Heatherwick’s Rolling
Bridge

The prescribed
Ex: Under Scan, artist Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer (Lighting)
The responsive
Ex: Volume, a 2006 installation at
London's Victoria and Albert
The interactive Museum (Lighting)

Ex: Dune | Studio Roosegaarde,

interactive landscape (Lighting)
 • It is a particular kind of pre-conceived story,
Architecture as performance, or event unfolding over time. With
a clear beginning and end that are made,

media: the evolution packaged, and then received, it is entirely pre-

scripted.

• Ex. Film Guild Cinema created by architect

Fredrick Kiesler
The prescribed • It no longer exists, but remains one of the most
progressive film theater designs to this day. The film
screen was a lens that functioned like the pupil of
an eye, expanding and contracting to fit the
different shapes and sizes of screens and
eliminating the need for curtains
The responsive • Synchronized with it was a multiple projection
system that extended across the walls and
ceiling

The interactive

Film Guild Cinema created by architect Fredrick Kiesler

 Architecture as
media: the evolution

The prescribed

The responsive Beijing National Aquatics Center

The interactive

Thomas Heatherwick’s sculptural Sitooterie restaurant

 Architecture as
media: the evolution

The prescribed Beijing National Aquatics Center

• lighting designer Zhen Jianwei
• Concept: visualize the energy
The responsive flow of the Chinese people
• The lighting system consists of a
program that collects emoticons
used every day by millions of
The interactive users on the Chinese
microblogging site Weibo (the
Chinese counterpart to Twitter),
and then interprets them to form
an overview of the mood of the
Chinese people.
• These moods—anger, happiness,
depression, excitement—are
expressed in subtle gradients of LEDs integrated into
colors. the pillow frames
Steiermärkische Bank in Graz, Austria London’s Business Design Centre London’s Eye
 Sony Center, Berlin,
Germany
General Definition:

The Sony Center in Berlin, Germany, is an international

commercial, communication, and cultural hub that draws
nearly 8.3 million visitors a year.

Components:

• The focal point of the complex is The Forum, a roofed

public square.
• Constructed of steel, glass, and cloth streamers, the
Forum's roof is the Sony Center's most prominent
architectural element.
• At night, the roof comes alive with fascinating light
shows
• designed by Paris project artist Yann Kersale, in varying
shades of cyan and magenta.

Why new lighting system?

The Forum's original incandescent lighting system had been in

place for twelve years. After constant operation, it was
reaching its maximum life expectancy and had become too
costly to maintain. The Sony Center was looking for a
replacement system that was long-lasting, energy-efficient,
and low-maintenance, but that could still create color-
changing light shows.
Design Target:
“bringing the whole Sony Center to life”
• The team from solution provider Alexander Weckmer Licht und
Mediensysteme GmbH had to deliver a solution that could provide powerful
and uniform illumination of the unique fan-like geometry of the roof.
• Since each individual "sail" of the fan had varying dimensions, slope, and
shape, each fixture would have to be individually positioned to achieve
uniform illumination.
• They installed Philips Color Kinetics ColorReach Powercore and ColorBlast
Powercore LED floodlighting fixtures, which were powerful and flexible
enough to achieve all of the project's goals.

Lighting Technology:

With the new full-color LED lighting fixtures and high-bandwidth digital control,
the Sony Center can now choose from more than 16 million colors,can create new
light shows for special events such as film opening nights and holidays — all
while cutting energy consumption by 73% .
 • Responsive architecture is most simply defined as a
Architecture as space that responds to its environment but has no
media: the evolution agency
• It absorbs information from its general environment
and responds to it in some way but people cannot
actively affect or change its behavior
The prescribed • sound and light sculptures absorbed data from their
environment and translated it into kinetic
performances.
The responsive
UN Studio’s Galleria Department Store façade in Seoul

The interactive

• Lighting Design: Arup Lighting, Rogier

• skin made from 4,330 glass discs backed with a dichroic
adhesive film. Digitally controlled LEDs behind each disc
emit a changing landscape of color at night, driven by
Tabard Square’s barometer controlled beacon variables in the environment.
• LED lighting manufacturer Xilver delivered
5000 color changing LED lights
• The Galleria is completely covered by a
series of 80 cm-diameter frosted glass
discs which are backlit by LED lights
• The LEDs change the color of each of the
discs and thus enable the creation of a vivid
play of colors and graphics to be displayed
on the exterior of the store
• Xilver developed a controller that can
control up to 4 individual RGB LED lights
called RainDrops. These RainDrops are
individually addressable and thus
controllable through any DMX-512 device
(a standard for digital communication networks that are commonly
used to control stage lighting and effects).
• special software to automatically adjust
the intensity and wavelength of each fixture
related to the LEDs used from a particular
binning
 urban architectural design
LED Lights

• Software provides DMX signals to the lights.

• In normal cases, hardware could handle 16 DMX lines, while in
this case we had to control 32 lines. In total something like
15,000 DMX channels are controlled by E:Cue's Programmer
software and 8 E-Link Ethernet nodes.
• Each lighting fixture of Xilver acts as a pixel of a video screen.
• The E:Cue programmer software intelligently combines lighting
control with the display of videos and bitmaps through the
Xilver color changing LED lighting fixtures
• All kind of effects can be added easily to these images (special
occasions, and can be changed over time according to seasons, fashion events and
artistic inspirations)

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2005/01/leds-transform-
department-store-in-seoul.html
During the day the atmospheric and weather changes influence the degree
of reflection and absorption of light and color on the glass circles, so that
from different viewing points the appearance of each disc and the total
surface changes constantly according to those external conditions that are
beyond human control.
 • Interactivity essentially means that both people and
Architecture as buildings have agency, enabling the creation of
conversations between the two in real-time.
media: the evolution
• Interactive Architecture is a processes of creating dynamic
spaces and objects capable of performing a range of pragmatic and
The prescribed •
humanistic functions.
These complex physical interactions are made possible by the
creative fusion of embedded computation (intelligence) with a
physical, tangible counterpart (kinetics).
• A uniquely twenty-first century toolbox and skill set-virtual and
The responsive physical modeling, sensor technology, CNC fabrication, prototyping,
and robotics-necessitates collaboration across many diverse scientific
and art-based communities.
• Interactive Architecture includes contributions from the worlds of
The interactive architecture, industrial design, computer programming, engineering,
and physical computing.

Computer Numerical Control (CNC)

 • Creates environments facilitate interaction between
Architecture as people.
• These space are able to reconfigure themselves in
media: the evolution response to human stimuli-will literally change our
worlds by addressing our ever-evolving individual,
social, and environmental needs.

The prescribed
• Allowing technology to evolve naturally, it replaces
static forms that are set and stable with living,
The responsive interactive spaces that can be many different things to
many different people.

The interactive • Instead of being just the venue for storytelling (whether
in libraries, churches, theaters, offices, homes, or
sports arenas), this intelligent, kinetic architecture itself
becomes the storyteller.
 • Interactivity essentially means that both people and
buildings have agency, enabling the creation of
conversations between the two in real-time.
Architecture as
media: the evolution

The prescribed

The responsive

The interactive
UN Studio’s La Defense project in the Netherlands

uses reflective material effects to create a heightened relationship between architecture and its
environment. Coated in its entirety with a unique 3M-developed diachronic foil, the façade
absorbs its environment and reflects it back through a spectrum of colors.
 Architecture as
media: the evolution

The prescribed

The responsive

The interactive
Thomas Heatherwick’s Rolling Bridge
Inspired by the Oscar ceremonies’ red carpet procession and operated by hydraulic ramps set in the
handrails, the bridge rolls and unrolls. Here, using simple mechanics, the bridge responds to the needs of
the city by either opening the water passage or creating a passage for people.
 Architecture as media: the
evolution

The prescribed

The responsive

The interactive

Under Scan, artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

large-scale public art project Under Scan is an installation of thousands of video portraits projected into town
squares in England. The portraits are camouflaged by floodlights and are revealed when people pass through the
square. These digital portraits interact with the pedestrians, turning away as pedestrians lose interest and walk
away. Under Scan embodies the ideas of interactive architecture: a space that, through intelligent exchanges,
creates highly curated, personalized, and reactive responses. These blur the boundaries between the physical and the
virtual, engaging the audience in endless conversations.
• To explore themes of self-
representation, participants were filmed
for up to three minutes, freely
portraying themselves doing whatever
they felt best represented them.
• Passers-by were detected by a
computerised tracking system,
which activated the video portraits
and projected them within their
shadow.
• The portraits 'woke up' and established
eye contact with the viewer as soon as
his or her shadow 'revealed' them. As the
viewer walked away, the portraits
reacted by looking away, and eventually
disappeared if no-one activated them.
• Every seven minutes the entire
installation stopped and reset itself,
revealing the tracking system in a brief
sequence which projected all of the
calibration grids used by the
computerised surveillance system.
 Architecture as media: the
evolution

The prescribed

The responsive

The interactive

Volume, a 2006 installation at London's Victoria and Albert Museum

Positioned dramatically in the center of the museum’s garden, a field of light and sound sculptures responded to
human movement, creating endless and everchanging audio-visual experiences for its visitors. This interactive
piece created a kinetic narrative space that engaged both the environment and its users in active, real-time
conversations.
 Dune | Studio Roosegaarde
Architecture as media:
the evolution • public interactive landscape that interacts
with human behavior
• This hybrid of nature and technology is
composed of large amounts of fibers that
The prescribed brighten according to the sounds and motion
of passing visitors
• DUNE enhances social interactions in the
The responsive public pedestrian Maastunnel

The interactive
Architecture as media: Dune | Studio Roosegaarde
the evolution • public interactive landscape that
interacts with human behavior
• utilizes fewer than 60 watts of
The prescribed energy.

The responsive

The interactive

DUNE 4.2, situated alongside the Maas River in Rotterdam (NL)

Conclusion
• Various urban spaces can be transformed into interactive spaces
using low-cost, lightweight interactive lighting.
• Most current design examples of interactive architecture, i.e.
responsive digital environments, are large, rather expensive
projects carried out and displayed in high-tech buildings and
museums.
• In carrying out this kind of projects in public spaces not originally
designed for installations and events of this kind, a large number
of practical concerns are encountered ; that need to be dealt
with:
1. issues of access to the power grid,
2. changing weather condition,
3. stakeholders and gatekeepers with different perspectives
4. issues of safety and vandalization.
References
• http://rice.iuav.it/221/1/04_zarin-fallmann.pdf
• https://segd.org/interactive-architecture
• http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/emoji-in-light-on-the-beijing-water-cube/
• http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2005/01/leds-transform-department-store-in-seoul.html
• https://www.google.com/search?q=Under+Scan&newwindow=1&biw=1280&bih=656&source=lnms&tbm=i
sch&sa=X&ei=5h3uVLnOMInLPYLTgIAG&ved=0CAcQ_AUoATgK#imgdii=_&imgrc=-
lpNzZc9jIStLM%253A%3BmNdKtlG7JTun4M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcdn.trendhunterstatic.com%252
Fthumbs%252Funder-scan-project-interactive-video-
shadows.jpeg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.trendhunter.com%252Ftrends%252Funder-scan-project-
interactive-video-shadows%3B300%3B470
Thank You