Responsive Facade

A prototype design for a responsive geometric screen is presented here. The screen employs origami based geometry that can alter it shape in response to the surrounding physical conditions.

The project is conceived as a system that can be used for internal and external screening functionality, for social and environmental purposes (privacy, daylight control, etc.). The system is designed in two levels: the Repeat Units (RU), tiles that hold the morphable models, and the Repetitive Structure (RS), the overall organization of the tiles. The geometry allows the tiles to transform, to shrink or expand in response to light.

First Experiment:

First experiment focused on the design of the tile and the morphable object. Video below shows one of the very early prototypes that was built from laser cutted pieces and homemade origami pattern.

Video below shows the making of the origami pattern from a piece of paper.

Scaling Up:

The next step was to populate the structure with these responsive patterns. Ten repeated units were digitally designed in a hexagonal fashion and fabricated accordingly.

Each tile is connected to a servomotor that receives input from a photoresistor sensor. The sensor provides information about the surrounding environment allowing each tile to alter its shape accordingly. Below is explanation of the fabrication, assembly and testing processes.

This project played a central role in the development of the dynamic environment studio in which broader range of problems related to the built environment were investigated.

More: https://www.geno-morph.com/rg