Designing Kinetics for Architectural Facades: State Change
Contents:
The work is precision engineered, resulting in a silent, successive folding and unfolding of structural components. A proposed sun-shading project in Madrid, undertaken as a consultant to Norman Foster and Partners, suggests alternative compositional approaches to the singular motion typically associated with these dynamic structures. As visualized in Figure 2. The regular centre to periphery transitional movement is enhanced by the contrasting orientation of the individual parts. Moreover, the independent motion of each part potentially allows a range of non-uniform compositions beyond centre to periphery.
This review of contemporary activity is organized in terms of kinetic type — translation, rotation and scaling — with projects again being selected on the basis of the potential for kinetic composition. While sash and roller mechanisms have been available for centuries to activate external screens, it has been difficult to locate contemporary examples of translational movement, considered in terms of kinetic composition. One example from academia is a student project that allows horizontal and vertical translation, illustrated in Figure 2. This allows consistent horizontal or vertical movement, or a sequential stacking kinetic.
The kinetic is one of vertical translation incorporated with a folding joint that also enables a scaling effect. When activated along the facade, this allows a range of vertical compositional patterns of translation and scaling. In contrast to translation, there are a large number of projects that use rotation, in particular those that use adjustable louvers to provide dynamic Figure 2.
However, these are generally conceived as functional panels within the overall facade, with minimal evidence of kinetic composition. Examples of different approaches to rotational screens include: Rectilinear aluminum sections are suspended on low-friction bearings at their centre of gravity, with each section having an electromagnet embedded in the ends, so that movement of the singular is transferred to adjacent members.
Motion is dependent on wind but can also be instigated or dampened by controlling the strength of the magnets. This project was conceived within the practice of science museums commissioning installations to demonstrate physical behaviour, in this case wave 17 Part I Figure 2. The educational context has enabled the deliberate investigation of patterns related to electromagnetic fields, and as realized provides a glimpse of the aesthetic potential of large-scale architectural screens. Completing this sampling of rotational screens is a unique example of a double rotation, the kinetic wall sculpture Battleship, by Anthony Howe.
As illustrated in Figure 2. Most examples of expansion and contraction are found in elastic membranes. Typically, these operate at the scale of pneumatic structures, such as the previous Hyperbody example, or at the scale of a kinetic relief. As an example of a pneumatic facade, a student project undertaken at the University of Melbourne is illustrated in Figure 2. Pneumatic ellipses are individually controlled and inflate to create a variable quilted sunscreen, which potentially allows a wide range of kinetic patterns based on expansion and contraction. The Institut du Monde Arabe is perhaps the most famous example of a kinetic facade, and represents a particular scaling kinetic.
Each bay consists of a central circular shutter set within a grid of smaller shutters, referencing the geometry of traditional Arab screens. In this example, the kinetic definition becomes somewhat ambiguous, as the actual movement is one of rotation of flat sheets over each other, similar to the mechanism of a camera lense. But as the planar rotation is perpendicular to the facade, the kinetic is perceived as a radial scaling kinetic. The expanse of the facade allows for multiple kinetic reading: The design of Auroa Place by Renzo Piano is cited as an explicit example of an operable surface.
These have horizontal proportions and are operated as vertical groups of three, with opening mechanism, drive gear and rods articulated on the external skin. The kinetic operation is purely functional, but the incremental movement enabled by the finely calibrated mechanisms goes beyond the typical engineering solutions to enable a subtle kinetic interplay along the facade.
Another example of an operable surface that goes beyond the pragmatic is the storefront for Art and Architecture, an early work by Stephen Holl. It was conceived when he was particularly interested in proportional systems, and the project has been described in these terms. This small project has become a New York landmark, with the configuration of the openings being mapped to the temporal scale of daily changes in weather and the longer scale of exhibition turnover. The original computer visualization presented the relief as a smoothly undulating surface, but the prototype was eventually realized Figure 2.
Capable of producing abstract or figurative relief, the primary constraint is the dimensions of the metal plates, which determine the level of resolution and degree of curvature possible. Unfortunately, this potential has not being fully realized, but the project has stimulated a succession of architectural projects that explore similar approaches to generating kinetic relief. There are a number of elastic membranes that enable smooth undulation, producing the most contiguous relief surfaces.
For example, as illustrated in Figure 2. Designed as a free-standing art piece, the compositional effect is determined by the scale of the actuators. In this case a furniture scale deformation occurs, but in principle the systems can be scaled up or down to produce a range of undulating surface patterns. The majority of the relief prototypes have been developed and fabricated in academic research institutions, but recently a commercial product has become available. Differing combination of the oblique angles of adjacent flakes produces a remarkable range of effects, given the actual movement is in only one axis.
In addition to triangulated, pneumatic and fibrous approaches, there are examples of spatial deformation through controllable variance in material property. There has been much speculation on the possibilities for nanotechnology in architecture, but at present, apart from self-cleaning surfaces, there have been minimal applications.
Benjamin and Yang embed shape memory alloys in a flexible skin to achieve gill-like apertures. In this case, shape memory alloy wire embedded in flexible silicon expands to create the apertures. In another example Pavel Hladik uses a three-dimensional structural frame that expands and contracts Figure 2. The design group Ocean North has undertaken an innovative project that exploits the material properties of wood to expand and contract in relation to humidity.
Other kinetics This section of activity covers a grey zone, on the edges of the definition of spatial kinetics established in Chapter 1. There are a number of self-powered, independent kinetic assemblies that can operate as part of a building facade. These include robotic systems such as wall-climbing window-cleaning robots 26 and turbines that have been developed for generating electricity via wind.
As visualized, independently controlled figures roam up and across the building facade. While these are primarily considered in functional terms, Gage proposes they could also have an educative or performative role when not engaged in maintenance tasks. A second group of kinetic examples on the edge of the research scope revolve around water as an integral part of a facade composition. The use of water to enliven architecture has a long history.
The water walls act in a similar way to large-scale interactive media screens. The control system can process images or patterns based on input from motion sensors, or create openings based on proximity of surveyors. While not a facade, the lattice-like installation of delicate acrylic armatures and feathery laser-cut Mylar is evidence of the subtle poetry of motion achievable with a fine density of kinetic parts. Contemporary discourse The slice through activity reveals the range of compositional opportunities afforded by contemporary kinetics. Facades are being designed at various scales, tested via physical prototypes and in some cases realized.
Moreover, the projects locate a 24 Kinetic precedent number of designers and research groups theorizing architecture variously described as responsive, reactive or interactive. This section briefly outlines the literature generated in relation to contemporary practice, in terms of four recurrent themes: Indeterminacy Within media facades there is a consistent line of thinking that contrasts traditional composition with the indeterminacy of kinetic form.
Designing Kinetics for Architectural Facades: State change
The range of kinetic pattern for the Aegis was intended to be an indeterminate play between embedded text and its deformation through local interaction, in effect a mutable hieroglyph. The designer retains some editorial control of this interaction, through the qualitative filtering of the input by the computer control system. While a full-scale prototype was implemented, the project now appears stalled, with the legacy being a number of photographs and videos that typically show image or sound being mapped to produce wave-like kinetic pattern.
As noted in the previous section, the Aegis has inspired a number of other prototypes. There are a number of projects that pursue similar natural analogies in the context of art installations. The later Hylozoic Ground is the culmination of a shift to the vertical plane and the creation of internal kinetic environments.
As articulated in the introduction 25 Part I to Responsive Architectures, the term is used in a very general sense to describe an interaction between a kinetic system and environment. Responsive is used throughout this book to speak of how natural and artificial systems can interact and adapt. Speaking of evolution, we might think of how environments act via natural selection on diverse populations.
While that traditional definition is included here, we also want to include conscious action. In contrast to this direct intervention, the reflexive approach of dECOi suggests a more nuanced approach. External forces, either environmental or by human intervention, do not produce a correspondingly direct reaction. Rather, these inputs are processed according to the logic of the control system to produce a reflexive kinetic.
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In contrast to responsive or reflexive kinetics there are simple environmentally reactive surfaces. Consider, for example, the wind walls of Ned Kahn,39 where nets of hinged discs based on s advertising signage techniques produce stunning visual effects of wind on a reactive surface. No doubt every major city will get a wind wall incorporated into a building skin, but the simple reactive kinetic effect of wind on metal disc allows little more than a vertical version of wind rippling on water.
The distinction between such reactive kinetics with responsive and reflexive approaches provides a continuum of types of interaction, all of which produce differing levels of indeterminacy: These distinctions locate a fine-grained nuance of indeterminate form, which may prove insightful for understanding the design variables for kinetics. The context of the art installation, or the experimental prototype such as the Aegis, provides a fertile test bed for indeterminate kinetics.
Within the commercial sphere we located Flare, a kinetic relief that uses a tiled geometric figure to maximize effects from a simple one-dimensional rotation. The computer animations on the marketing site reveal the kinetics arranged in horizontal bands, with wave-like patterns being propagated in a simple linear manner. Given that each flake is individually controlled, there is the potential for a wide range of kinetic indeterminacy, but at present there is no evidence of this being explored.
Flare is typical of most current activity within kinetic media facades. There is a range of plausible kinetic media facades of various configurations, but there is a paucity of content that exploit the potential of the technology. This is a deliberate attempt to avoid 26 Kinetic precedent design ideology, through the tactic of a locally responsive, event-driven interaction. The recurring interest in indeterminacy potentially challenges this inquiry into kinetic morphology.
Arguably, however, the projects still require the parameters of this interaction to be designed. There may be indeterminacy at the level of data sampling, but the resultant kinetic is moderated through control systems and tectonics that typically produce a consistency note the repeated reference to wave and ripple motion, for example. The open remit of this discussion is on identifying the parameters that are available to the designer, and locating the full range of kinetic forms that result.
It might be that the tactic of indeterminacy merely suggests an alternate way of conceiving composition. The projects have been carefully and skillfully constructed by designers, fully in control of the parameters by which users interact, and the mechanisms by which data is translated into kinetics. This compositional tactic parallels artists such as Brian Eno, who have shifted their activity from the discrete object, to specifying the parameters for multiple iterations: None the less, the subtle variables that control how interaction is translated to kinetics still have to be designed.
More often than not, the framework for such indeterminacy produces distinctive outcomes that can be analyzed in terms of morphology. Functional expression While media facades may be considered to provide a social function, there is a separate and longstanding interest in kinetics to enhance the environmental performance of architectural facades. The area of most activity for environmental control is active sunshading systems, which builds on the legacy of the modernist brise-soleil.
The majority of the literature is concerned with the pros and cons of active sunscreens in terms of functional effectiveness. There are two general design approaches: While Baird notes successful expression and integration of environmental control systems within the architectural aesthetic, discussion of the actual kinetics is seldom referred to.
It would appear the design of the kinetics is generally not considered as part of the agenda of functional expressionism. From a historical perspective, the seminal project for kinetic facades is 27 Part I the Institut du Monde Arabe. Conceived as a modern interpretation of traditional Arabic screens, the intent of the kinetics was to control light, and an intricate mechanism was developed to achieve this. Given this hybrid role as semiotic reference and light manipulator, this project could have been included in the documentation of discourse around media facades. Regardless of how it is interpreted, the Monde Arabe is an important project that has received much acclaim, but minimal discussion as to the potential of its kinetics.
The designer, Jean Nouvel, appears to have no interest in the kinetic effects of the 25, shutters, and defends the operational failure of the system by saying the movement is so slow that most people thought it was not working. Neither his comments, nor subsequent critique of the project by others, discuss in any depth the potential of the kinetics in terms of range of pattern or strategies of kinetic composition. Intelligence In addition to discussion of the indeterminate media surface and the previous section on functional expressionism, there is a track of discourse on intelligent facades.
A recent overview defines the basic criteria by which a building can be considered intelligent. In terms of the focus of this research, there is minimal discussion on the compositional potential of kinetics within contemporary discourse on intelligent facades. The development of intelligent facades is driven by an environmental performance agenda, which arguably continues the functionally determinative trajectory of architecture as a built form of design science.
Over metres in length, what could have been a rather heavy-handed urban design gesture to give disparate buildings a common identity, is enlivened by the kinetics. Each louver is independently adjustable, varying over time according to local preferences, resulting in unpredictable motion over the course of day and seasonal cycles. Within the scope of this inquiry, there are three significant researchers: While Hoberman is a leading practitioner, who started from a background as a sculptor, he appears comparatively reticent to engage in discourse.
His aesthetic is dominated by a distinctive approach to engineering, which produces a singular, minimal motion as the structural component folds in on itself. In a rare record of his design approach, his comments confirm this minimalist approach: The outcome is an eerily silent motion of structural components collapsing upon themselves, an engineering feat that typically produces a singular incremental motion.
Perhaps of more interest are the animations of the proposed large-scale retractable sunshade Hoberman has developed for the courtyard roof of the Campus of Justice in Madrid. Rather then a singular motion, the shading system is broken into independently controlled components, which, as visualized in the animation, produce an elegant part to whole kinetic as the total shading area unfolds.
This was useful in helping to determine the scope of the project survey, locating embedded structures as the most appropriate for this research. The other major contribution Fox makes in terms of theory is a taxonomy of control systems for kinetics. This identifies six general types, ordered by level of complexity: The first three systems are actuated via hand, motor or sensor switch directly, while in systems 4—6 the kinetics are mediated by use of a computer.
While these are thorough classifications, they are all variations on the standard input-control-output ICO paradigm. This taxonomy of controls, while useful in understanding approaches to controlling kinetics, is not explored in terms of the range of kinetic patterns that will manifest. His taxonomy of control systems outlines the various 29 Part I ways kinetic structure may be controlled, with the majority of his work exploring the means by which these can be technically implemented.
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The kinetic consequences, the potential poetry of movement that results from these approaches to control and their technical implementation, receives minimal attention, although it is implicit to varying degrees in the examples he uses to illustrate his survey of activity. Oosterhuis was an early adopter of the computer as a design tool and has published widely in relation to digital production methods. Of particular significance for this research is his version of interactive architecture.
Interactive Architecture iA … is defined as the art of building relationships between built components in the first place, and building relations between people and built components in the second place. In general, the projects focus on the mechanics of realization, with minimal exploration of the possible range of kinetics enabled by the technology. But, again, the concept of a control mechanism based on self-organizing behaviour, such as that achieved with flocking algorithms, while potentially useful in indicating one approach to control systems, is not explored in terms of conceiving the opportunity for kinetic composition.
Kinetic theory The reviews of contemporary practice and discourse have revealed sophisticated taxonomy of control systems and a range of approaches to interactivity, but provides minimal insight for this study of kinetic morphology. This section extends the discussion, through an examination of key texts that address kinetics in a wider historical context. While there are useful backgrounds to movement in architecture within books on Santiago Calatrava54 and an excellent study of transportable architecture by Robert Kronenburg,55 two sources are particularly relevant.
The most direct precedent is Kinetic Architecture, by Zuk and Clarke, which summarizes architectural research in kinetics during the s. Motion in 30 Kinetic precedent Architecture, which places Dutch architecture of the s within a potentially useful philosophical context.
The authors have an academic background and the book collates research and teaching agendas undertaken during the s at the Universities of Virginia and North Carolina. The emphasis of the book is on adaptable spaces via kinetic structural systems, with no documentation of kinetic screens, relief or materials. The majority of the examples are structural systems that operate at a scale outside the scope of this research.
Potentially, this may be incorporated into the agenda of kinetic facades if, for example, materials that rapidly decompose are zoned and deformation controlled in some manner. This hovers on the margins of the inquiry within the tradition of weathering, and calls into question the issue of temporal scale. Kinetics as defined for the purposes of this study is physical movement in space via the three geometric transformations and their composites, or deformation due to controlling material properties.
As discussed in Chapter 1, the concentration on facades locates a generally vertical orientation, observable from a fixed point of view. Observable, by extension, infers that the timescale is such that the detection of movement is within the limits of human vision. These limits will obviously vary dependent on individual and context, but the lower threshold is between two and three seconds.
While the focus of Zuk and Clarke is firmly on kinetic structures at a scale generally outside the research scope, they do include a taxonomy of machines that can be seen as prefiguring the taxonomy of controls by Fox. The four categories are based on the degree of adaptation: After methodically documenting their categories of architectural kinetics, in the final section on future implications for design, Zuk and Clarke introduce the issue of kinetic aesthetics.
This would appear to be the first direct discussion 31 Part I of kinetics in architecture that goes beyond function or technology. Their emphasis is on the need to develop a temporal understanding of aesthetics. This idea occurs throughout their examples, as designers conceive kinetics in terms of multiple overlapping rates of change, from daily to yearly temporal scales. Since time is the basic measure of motion, it becomes an important factor in design. This suggests that kinetic architecture must be considered as a continuum.
The movement unfolds, but what the form has just been or what it will be, are a matter for recollection or conjecture. This architecture can never be confronted whole. A definition of form which is time-dependent must be recognized …. The sense of motion, itself, then, can be a visual aesthetic much as has traditionally being the case with basic elements like colour, texture and pattern.
However, there is no further development of this idea, either through subsequent publications or design studies. Their intuition that the kinetic arts provide a valuable source for understanding aesthetics will be taken up in some detail in Chapter 4. Jormakka is a professor in architectural theory, and his critique of motion in architecture is undertaken by positioning architectural projects within a historical framework.
Perhaps of more potential for this inquiry is a philosophical discussion, which Jormakka argues underpins the theme of movement in architecture. This provides some references that offer insight for this study of kinetic morphology. In particular, duration as proposed by philosopher Henri Bergson, suggests that a study of kinetics might be informed by the ideas of continuity and difference.
Bergsonian duration is introduced by Jormakka through the example of a melody. It is argued that melody resides in the memory of past notes and in anticipation of a complete phrase rather then the real time hearing of discrete notes. The concept of duration, as will be developed at the end of this chapter, also provides a basis for considering the temporal form of kinetic facades. The challenge of kinetics The greatest challenge of all is not scientific creating increasingly mature mathematical models , nor technological creating the physical and electronic systems to enable levels of interactivity and sensibility in building and settings.
And neither is it even functional.
Figure redrawn from the original by Joseph Macdonald in Kwinter, S. Of particular significance for this research is his version of interactive architecture. The interaction of simple two-dimensional parameters allows insight on the complexity of three-dimensional fluid dynamics. The mechanism he uses to locate difference is the reciprocity between component parts and the composition as a whole. From Kaufmann, the contribution of David Leatherbarrow provides a contemporary view of the legacy of modernism.
No the true challenge is, as always, of an aesthetic nature. To advance beyond obvious compositional approaches such as the proliferation of wave forms , some basic research needs to be undertaken. This includes an understanding of the variables that determine kinetics, iterative design studies to explore the possible range of kinetic forms, and a shared set of terms to enable considered critique.
The aim of this book is to provide this basic framework. As a first step towards this goal, this chapter has scanned contemporary practice and discourse and examined the wider historical context. What has been revealed? Contemporary designers tend not to engage in discourse on aesthetics when discussing projects, and this is the case for most working with kinetic facades.
The review of practice and discourse was undertaken to examine precedent for an articulated design theory, or reflection on practice by designers in terms of kinetic composition. Some useful information has been uncovered, in particular, research on control systems for kinetics in architecture provides precedent for some of the variables that determine kinetics.
There is, however, minimal discussion that engages with the aspiration of this book. There is little evidence of designers stepping back from their design prototypes, and considering the possible range of compositional approaches afforded by kinetics. Why is this so? They are singular moments in architectural history, which have become 33 Part I as well known for the technical problems as for the innovative compositional potential they signaled. The contemporary emphasis within architectural design on environmental performance has led to a renewal of interest in the capacity for facades to be kinetically responsive.
A range of environmental sunscreens have been constructed, and new systems are continually being developed. At present the kinetics is basic, but there is no doubt that the current trajectory of research into responsive building facades will continue, with the result that more sophisticated technical solutions will be available.
Within these environmental systems there is a growing recognition that the aesthetics of the technology needs to be considered, alongside the technical performance. The drivers are twofold: The technology is constantly improving, with more robust mechanics and refined controls to coordinate the kinetics of individual components. This provides an opportunity for designers to integrate kinetics in a manner that enhances performance, user experience and provides new avenues for the architectural expression of technology.
The potential for kinetic environmental control systems is one clear area of activity, but, understandably, composition is not at the forefront of this research. The gap in design knowledge is more immediately apparent outside environmental control, where designers are contemplating the use of kinetic relief as an engaging, interactive form of cladding. The overview of activity also revealed alternative technology, which explores kinetic membranes and other approaches to producing animated relief.
That research is being driven by an interest in the recasting of architectural surface as a zone of interactivity, with the potential to engage users with public artworks or to embed socio-cultural information. At present, the focus is on the technical and functional aspects of the kinetic systems, but implicit in the discourse is an interest in composition. Within the contemporary mainstream, an alternative approach to the articulation of static facades has been developing for some time.
The Function of Ornament articulates a revived interest in urban facades beyond the legacy of functional expressionism and post-modern composition: Architecture needs new mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture. It achieves this by continually capturing the forces that shape society as material to work with. Progress in architecture occurs through new concepts by which it becomes connected with this material, and it manifests itself in new aesthetic compositions and affects.
The filtering and control for the Aegis, by contrast, aspired to shape a precise order of indeterminacy — to suspend the composition in an undulating zone of mutable surface where text, image and sampling of local interaction momentary coalesce as fleeting pattern on pattern. Unfortunately, as the Aegis appears to have been mothballed, it is not possible to gauge how far their qualitative filtering progressed.
The photographs and stills reveal a predilection for waves and eddies of various configurations, which resonates with many of the other examples examined. For the purposes of this study, the aspiration is that a morphology of kinetic pattern will enable such precise control over levels of indeterminacy, or if it is the design intent, the converse — a predictably ordered composition.
That is, kinetic composition as used here, considers design as a continuum between explicit predetermined form and degrees of indeterminacy — reactive, responsive and reflexive. Beyond contemporary activity, the historical widening of the scan through kinetics revealed overviews of technology and a philosophical perspective.
In terms of the former, Zuk and Clarke provide a taxonomy of machine controls, culminating in a heuristic system linked to a cybernetic device. How might this taxonomy be utilized in relation to a morphology of kinetic pattern? A framework for considering the design variables that influence kinetic pattern, if developed from these precedents, would emphasize composition as a direct outcome of technology. The classifications may allow a greater understanding of technical approaches, but as presented, there is no connection made with the kinetic composition that results.
The emphasis on technology as the primary factor in determining kinetic pattern does not address the wider context, evidenced by contemporary examples — in particular those systems that are not directly related to an environmental agenda, such as the range of projects that explore kinetic relief. In contrast to Zuk and Clarke, the discussion of contemporary Dutch architecture by Jormakka considers kinetics primarily in relation to theory. Of some potential relevance is his discussion of the philosophical legacy of Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze.
Two concepts — diagram and duration — appear to be used productively by some of the architects cited in his discussion. The intuition here is that the answers to this question reside in an articulation of the full range of variables that determine kinetics. Diagram as used by Jormakka, can be seen to equate to the focus on morphology that underpins this research. As will be evident in Part 2, a diagrammatic or morphological approach enables a systematic exploration of the compositional potential of kinetic facades.
The second concept introduced by Jormakka is Bergsonian duration. Duration has been developed by Gilles Deleuze, through his highlighting of the distinction between continuous and qualitative multiplicity. It would be a serious mistake to think that duration was simply the indivisible, although for convenience, Bergson often expresses himself in this way. In reality, duration divides up and does so constantly: That is why it is a multiplicity.
But it does not divide up without changes in kind, it changes in kind in the process of dividing up. The surveyor may continue to observe infinite variation by degree and, while the register of subtle variations may be engaging, once the initial discovery has passed, this is a relatively neutral state.
There is no qualitative change — the variations, while infinite, do not achieve any state change and hence do not heighten perceptual awareness. In contrast, a kinetic facade which operates as a qualitative multiplicity would, within the Bergsonian framework, undergo changes in kind as well as in degree. For example, would differential resistance to rotation suffice?
Consider if the small discs that make up the surface were ferrous, rather than aluminum. An electromagnetic field controlling the facade could enable a dampening of the wind patterns. If the control was in turn linked to another non-linear data source, an unpredictable mix of wind force and dampening effect would result.
Potentially, there would be the capacity for two 36 Kinetic precedent types of pattern formation, and permutations between states. That is, the capacity for difference in degree and kind. The concept of duration articulates that, as phenomena unfold in time, there is the capacity for changes in degree, that in turn trigger changes in kind.
This may provide a useful insight for understanding the influence of design variables on kinetic pattern, and conceiving a robust morphology that can cope with the potentially infinite variation possible. The context for understanding the potential of kinetics has a wider background than that being considered by many designers.
Contemporary activity is evidence of a growing field of design, but one that still requires some fundamental work to be undertaken. Designers are focusing on technical implementation, and are producing innovative and inspirational prototypes to meet the requirements for robust, environmentally efficient systems.
The ideas being explored here are no less challenging — that is, the potential for a subtle aesthetics of movement. The motivation was to review how theory and practice has engaged with the liquid potential of kinetics. While the examples provide evocative glimpses, there is minimal evidence of designers realizing the full potential of kinetics to extend the agenda of architectural composition.
Nor are there theoretical models that locate design variables, or a nomenclature that captures the poetry of motion. Putting direct precedent for kinetics to one side, can paradigms from the wider perspective of static facades be usefully adapted? In order to deal with the wealth of potential sources, insight from the discussion of qualitative and continuous multiplicity informs the review.
- Neonatal Formulary.
- Reward Yourself.
- Designing kinetics for architectural facades : state change;
- The Collins Class Submarine Story: Steel, Spies and Spin.
The distinction between difference by degree and difference by kind that concluded the previous chapter, focuses the attention on theorists and historians who take a wider view than stylistic iteration. In this respect, the work of historian Emil Kaufmann locates generic approaches to design composition prior to the modern movement.
The mechanism he uses to locate difference is the reciprocity between component parts and the composition as a whole. From Kaufmann, the contribution of David Leatherbarrow provides a contemporary view of the legacy of modernism. Leatherbarrow has examined material weathering, but the most relevant text is his Surface Architecture and subsequent discourse on performative architecture.
He traces the development of the freestanding facade and the neutralizing impact of mass-produced and standardized cladding. The idea of the performative surface is developed, as a way to re-engage with what he refers to as the lost project of representation. In order to place the idea of the performative surface in context, key historians of the modern movement are examined. In particular, Sigfried Giedion and Reyner Banham provide a link to the origins of the shift in compositional emphasis, that continues to this day.
Giedion and Banham both allocate a significant amount of their accounts of the early modern movement to the agenda of Italian Futurism. Subsequent analysis of this influential spark for twentieth-century art and architecture has been Part I undertaken by Sanford Kwinter. His book Architectures of Time examines in detail the futurist concept of plastic dynamism, relating this pivotal moment in the twentiethcentury avant-garde, to nineteenth-century developments in the physical sciences.
Kwinter in turn provides the link back to contemporary practice, in particular his activity within the ANY group of theorists and designers. A third area of discussion follows the identification in the previous chapter, that control systems are central to any discussion of kinetics. The taxonomy of Michael Fox and the categories of machine controls in the earlier work of Zuk and Clarke, belong to a wider sphere of activity, that of systems theory and cybernetics. This is introduced via the critique of new media theorist Katherine N. Hayles, followed by three contemporary figures who consider cybernetics from an architectural viewpoint: Compositional systems We speak of an architectural system as long as one ideal of configuration is valid.
Beyond this basic and, perhaps, somewhat nebulous idea there is nothing permanent, there is only change. The relationship of the whole and the parts, and of the parts to each other, are dictated by the ruling idea of the system, but the variations are infinite. The artist searches for ever new solutions. This is the essence of artistic development.
When considering architecture up to the twentieth century, he proposes there have been three systems, each differentiated by the reciprocity between component parts and the composition as a whole. Kaufmann proposes that while there are proportional relationships between parts and in relation to the whole, there is no differentiation or hierarchy between parts in ancient Graeco-Roman architecture.
His proposition is that the Baroque maintained the ideals of harmony and proportion from the Graeco-Roman system, but introduced a new compositional principle. The parts now should be presented not only in aesthetically satisfying relationships of size and in mathematical reciprocity, but they should be differentiated as superior and inferior components. It is based on number in the Pythagorean sense.
When concinnitas is present in a building the observer is challenged to work out the values involved in its siting, planes, or elevations collocatio , and in the volumes finitio. For example, the series 4: The use of number series to create proportional relationships was developed alongside the overriding principle of bilateral mirror symmetry.
For Kaufmann, what stylistically is referred to as the high Baroque, is the extreme manifestation of hierarchy between parts. The attempt to produce balanced symmetrical harmony based on proportional relationships is increasingly at odds with the Baroque articulation of a competing hierarchy of features. The goal of concinnitas becomes increasingly harder to maintain when the second requirement for differentiation between parts is accentuated. Sixteenth century architects began to realize there was no solution: One can strive for the reconciliation of graduation and concatenation, but one can never reach it.
Gradation in particular is the natural foe of integration. In Italy, the tension between unification and hierarchy led to extreme manifestations, such as the fluid facades of Borromini and Guarini. Perhaps the most inventive outcome in relation to the Borromini facades was the introduction of concave and convex planes, which bind vertical and horizontal surface behind highly articulated columns and cornice.
An original solution to the Baroque dilemma of the competing demands for unification and articulation, the curved planes and other swirling details produce sensual facades that literally ripple with tension. The ancient system was based on harmonic, non-hierarchical relations between parts, while the Baroque introduced to this the competing idea of hierarchical differentiation.
In the third system parts are not related, but are what Kaufmann terms independent or individual. He proposes two general categories by which independence is achieved — repetition and antithesis. While there was repetition in the ancient and Baroque systems, the difference Kaufmann identifies is that in the third system, parts are repeated as individual units. These are not proportionally related using harmonic number series, nor are they part of a hierarchical system of competing features.
These tactics of simple repetition and scaling provide relatively neutral facade compositions, prefiguring to some degree the arrival of twentieth-century modernism. Modernist surface Once the skin of the building became independent of its structure, it could just as well hang like a curtain or clothing. Leatherbarrow and Mostafav identify the development of the free facade, with what they consider to be a tragic break with traditions of composition and the semiotic role of facades.
As the public face of architecture, the facade was traditionally the site of visually engaging composition, or took on an associational character. The theme developed in Surface Architecture is that the technical development of the free facade enabled a fundamental shift in facade composition. While it is possible to trace the legacy of traditional compositional devices in the curtain wall, the dominating aesthetic is the neutral rectilinear grid. The free facade developed quickly into the curtain wall, with the relatively neutralizing impact of mass-produced and standardized cladding.
This is seen to produce a dilemma for architecture, which, according to Leatherbarrow, is still to be resolved. How then is architectural cladding to be understood: Is it, perhaps, both? The task of disclosure in architecture is not limited to that of representation in the traditional sense of the word. The architectural surface, shed of its load-bearing function, is free to allow experimentation with new technologies of adjustment.
Leatherbarrow continues the theme of surface as an active interstitial zone in a subsequent essay on performative architecture. In this he proposes that contemporary practice and criticism concentrate on either the functional aspects or the aesthetic experience, both of which treat architecture as object, independent of the temporal context in which they operate.
Approximate movements can be intended, but settings can also yield, respond or react to unforeseen events. The first step in the development of a performative architecture is to outline strategies of adjustment. Instead, he continues to discuss the idea of performance in relation to static elements of architecture and on the manner in which traces of structural and environmental dynamics are manifest. While functional performance may be scripted, the suggestion is that once a facade becomes kinetically responsive to oscillating functional demands, a level of indeterminacy is introduced.
The implication is that this enables a re-engagement with the traditional project of representation, albeit this resides in the play of functional kinetics. A name for this milieu is topography, indicating neither the built nor the un-built worlds, but both.
Architectural facades now have the potential to be literally kinetic, through automated sunscreens and a range of animated surfaces. This book. By classifying the animations, a theory of kinetic form called 'state change' is developed. This design research provides a unique and timely resource for those .
At one extreme would be the weathering of materials, as explored in his earlier writing on architectural surface. The operable surface presents a more immediate temporality. Yet for Leatherbarrow, this still appears to be located within the functional agenda of modernist composition: To this end, two early histories of modern architecture will be considered: The architectural revitalization of the wall, like Ronchamps can be dangerous.
It has already thrown a beguiling cloak over the playboy fashions of the s. One can observe everywhere a tendency to degrade the wall with new decorative elements. This is not the basic purpose. Architecture is fundamentally concerned with the revitalization of the wall from within. For Giedion, the wall is not composed, but is a result of a modernist 44 Systems, fields and reflexivity conception of space. In the first, space is concerned in terms of external relationships between buildings as distinct figures. From this synthesis of external and internal space, a functionally derivative view of facade design is developed.
Part to whole composition became subordinate to architecture of interpenetrating space and the play of light on smooth surface. In this context the sculptural wall composition and asymmetrical play of Ronchamp is only barely acceptable, if attributed to internal spatial and lighting requirements. Further still, any patterning or wall relief was rejected as mere ornament, unless it was integral with the surface construction.
Here, Giedion describes aspects of Italian Futurism and their relationship to developments in physics, which, according to him, instigated the re-conception of architectural space and time. In painting, the technique adopted was to capture movement as superimposed frames, while in sculpture Umberto Boccioni developed his practice around the theory of plastic dynamism.
After setting the scene through introductory chapters on theory between and , Banham devotes a group of chapters to present the futurist manifestos and projects. For Banham in particular, futurist-inspired movement is interpreted as invisible networks, setting architecture into compositional knots and implied motion. The legacy of the futurist field perpetuates in contemporary discourse and is omnipresent in the architecture of many practitioners.
How might this idea of the field align with kinetics? Field thinking The field describes a space of propagation, of effects. It contains no matter or material points, rather functions, vectors and speeds. His analysis will be introduced, and then related to the parametric design tactics of some contemporary practitioners. Kwinter locates Italian Futurism alongside the development of electromagnetic field theory. According to Kwinter, this results in a third principle — that form, space and time are coexistent and interdependent.
Kwinter locates this as a seminal moment for rethinking theories of form. He argues that the axial location of parameters and their interaction over time allow an intuitive understanding of the emergence of form, which in turn can be extrapolated to more complex systems. Now clearly, a plane is a very simple, even rudimentary space. Most systems in the real world, that is, most forms or morphogenetic fields, are clearly more complex than this.
The visualization of complex process as parameter interaction has resonance with kinetics, perhaps the most explicit design activity requiring conception in terms of fields of force. The visualization of parameters for dynamic form as planar interaction in relation to a vertical temporal axis, suggests a potential adaptation for conceiving parameters for kinetic facades.
The complexity of kinetics is likely to involve more than the interaction of two parameters, but the planar model provides an interesting basis from which to start. As revealed in Part II of this book, the visualization of complex interaction between parameters over time provides a potent idea for conceiving the variables which determine kinetic pattern.
Figure redrawn from the original by Joseph Macdonald in Kwinter, S. Animate design is defined by the co-presence of motion and force at the moment of formal conception. Force is an initial condition, the cause of both motion and the particular inflections of a form. He utilizes the capacity of design software not to draw, but rather sets up flexible models that can be animated over time.
The dynamic model is controlled by adjusting parameters, which propagate change through networks of associated geometry. By mapping geometry to attractor points, changes can be inflected through the linked geometry as if they were reacting to field forces. As we shall discuss later, there are close synergies with such time-based parametric design and the conception of the design variables that determine the temporal form of kinetic facades. Lynn was a pioneer in exploiting the capacity of software from the motion graphics industry for architecture. While animation had been used for some time for presentation purposes, he inverted the approach, to set form in motion.
Rather than animate a camera through a design, kinematic chains of geometry were animated to allow fine-grained manipulation of the composition. Published in , Animate Form has stimulated a generation of designers. Prominent within this digital wave are Reiser and Umemoto who have recently documented their own take on parametric design, the Atlas of Novel Tectonics.
What follows is the first design manual that reflects the foundational shift that first took place seventy years ago in physics, when life was first understood to represent a pattern in time that could no longer be amenable to explanation in purely physical and chemical terms. Unlike Lynn, there is an avoidance of generalized position statements or models for design.
There 48 Systems, fields and reflexivity are, however, recurring themes that may be instructive for conceiving kinetics. These emergent organizations become legible not as parts to a whole but as whole-whole relationships. Modularity is embraced, but, rather than repetition of identical units, they advocate minimal transformation at the level of a part. It is arguable that the modernist free facade allowed architects of the twentieth century to obscure part-to-whole composition through the mechanism of the neutral grid.
This produces graduations or intensities within a continuous whole, in contrast to the periodic uniformity of the modernist curtain wall. Together with the legacy of part-to-whole systems, these precedents provide a wider perspective in which to consider kinetic design. These invite further development in terms of possible compositional approaches for the design of kinetic facades and are taken up in some detail when planning the design experiments undertaken in Part II of this book. The reference to cybernetics is clearly pertinent to kinetics, which typically requires control systems to set facades in motion.
The research field of cybernetics is explicitly concerned with theoretical models for control systems, but unfortunately has a plethora of rather opaque terminology. As a shorthand introduction, Katherine N. Hayles provides a useful summary, while the research of Ranulphe Glanville amplifies the distinction between what are referred to as first- and second-order cybernetics. As a way of locating how cybernetics has influenced design practice, the work of Stephen Gage and John Frazer is briefly discussed.
What results is a rich variety of approaches to kinetic controls and, by implication, design composition. Homeostasis, reflexivity and emergence Cybernetics has its origins in self-regulating systems, where a device intervenes in a process to provide corrective feedback. The ubiquitous mechanical example is a float valve that maintains water at a constant level. Please choose whether or not you want other users to be able to see on your profile that this library is a favorite of yours. Finding libraries that hold this item You may have already requested this item. Please select Ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway.
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Designing Kinetics for Architectural Facades: State Change
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