Kinetic Gears
2019
The aim of creating a mobile façade is achieved by incorporating an interdisciplinary approach. Designing, fabrication, and coding show the different fields used in the process. After designing the space and the activities, a digital model was created and several alternatives for the facade pattern were created. This was also the phase when the mechanism and the gears for the mechanism were designed. After making a successful manually operable model, a new model was designed to meet the efficiency of the mechanical and electrical devices. Finally, LDR and distance measuring censors were incorporated to digitalize the functioning of the model. The final model consists of two different units functioning on based of data outputs of two different sensors.
A major challenge for the buildings is their in-adaptability, making them rigid, non-interactive and still-life objects. A major factor for this conclusion is the facade of the building. Instead of revealing more about the activities and the happenings inside the buildings, facades act as a barrier between the interior and exterior. Hence, we are proposing a system which aims at making the façade more communicative with the interior and exterior environments with light acting as the catalyst in the process.
Our design has dedicated to call for a return to ornament with diverse shapes and forms of materials, as well as taking advantage of physical environment which has connected to data and actuators. It can not only provide a new way to explore scientific research, but also make it possible to improve people’s quality of life by the way of contributing to architectural applications and interior applications.
Architectural applications influencing exterior aspect include the shape and form of face and building size. A more general notion is that people will much easier to be attracted by something new, which can control the social density to some degree.
Moreover, our design would like to set up an undefined space, trying to be possible for any spaces. These interior spaces can be decorated as arts gallery, fabrication lab, reading room, pet room, cafeteria, boxing room, music room, dancing room, as well as residential apartment, meanwhile tries to have a better sense of daylight, thermal comfort, acoustics, and air quality.
Date: Spring 2019
Location: Pullman, WA
Project Partners: Feiran Zou, Karan Raval, and Luming Xiao
Photo Credit: Feiran Zou, Karan Raval, and Luming Xiao