SOM + SCI-Arc on CF:Responsive Kinetic Facade

Apr 15, 2009

SOM + SCI-Arc on CF:Responsive Kinetic Facade

What are the potential benefits of and obstacles to a responsive kinetic facade system?

While designing the façade for a particular project here at SOM, one team asked this question, and sought to design a manufacturable kinetic facade system. Starting with a standard IGU, the team applied a hinged glass pane and spandrel panel laminated with photovoltaic cells. Using a magnetic control switch (powered by the photovoltaics), a pair of actuators, and a thermal sensor, the team created a “flexible skin”, capable of actuating based on data received from the thermal sensor. Based on preliminary tests, we’ve found that even a small six degree angular shift can result in a twenty-five percent reduction in the amount of solar heat gain inside the building.

The kinetic potential of a facade was used as a departure to explore other opportunities to generate design ideas. Students from the Sci-Arc Responsive Kinetic Facade (RKF-Team:Gilbert Atick, Anup Patel, Sanjay Sukie, Michael Wysochanski, Seung Kyun Yu were guideed by Designer Michael Simms, seeking to take this potential to the next level and search for other possibilities.

[Design Objectives]

Two primary concerns are targeted within our design. First is the humanistic values, to maintain an optimal thermal comfort level for inhabitants within the building while providing an interface between the erratic environmental behaviors outside and the more habitual climactic preferences of the user inside. The second fixates on the efficiency and performative intelligence of this kinetic facade system which will respond to multiple environmental parameters while absorbing as well as consuming energy it receives. We began by researching a broad range of precedents that emphasized interactively between facade systems, the environment, and its users. In order to access this research, we have created a matrix that classifies each system’s programmatic objectives, electromechanical makeup, material, and facade typology. We expanded our research on four of these case studies to gain a more in depth understanding of how these system’s operate. In particular, we wanted to discover what sensory inputs are driving the system, what materials were incorporated and how their inherit properties affect the final output, and how the electromechanical systems coordinate to create a kinetic surface. We have evaluated each system’s overall performance, tested their constraints through Digital Project, and theorized how these interfaces could be enhanced and applied into our final design objectives. After conducting our research, we fixated on the design of a double-skin facade. While the external skin of the façade will react to thermal conditions, the users of the building will be able to manually operate secondary ventilation and shading systems for the internal skin. The facade aspires to have a universal application, yet adaptive to the building typology by varying density and scale of the modules based on the internal programmatic assignment. In order to test its application, the facade system will be constrained to three different building contexts; an office tower , a museum, and single family residents.

[Performance Criteria]

Depth of Facade: By extending outwards points across the facade will expand the threshold between the erratic exterior thermal conditions and the those desired inside. If these two variables are similar then the facade shrinks giving the outside temperature a larger influence by way of thermal bridging. The depth of the actuators directly along the slab have a more instant effect by sealing and opening the fl ow of air from one floor to the next. Finally, if the skin is considered as a pump, then rapid and coordinated fluctuation of the facade could cause a redistribution of air. Ventilation: The exterior skin opens and closes in order to regulate the temperature of the entire building while the secondary ventilation on the interior skin gives local control to the temperature of each room.

[Application]

Node Density ( Program Context ): In order to optimally propagate the control nodes across the facade, programmatic necessity must be considered. If the internal program is broken into smaller personal spaces, the distancing will decrease between each creating more local controls, but if the program is shared, therefore allowing for a united thermal condition, the node is larger and more effective.

Solar: Given the variable size of PV cells we integrated them into the facade as almost a surface texture. Each cell will be capable of analyzing its orientation, then calibrate its top surface incident to the sun. The PV cells will also provide partial shading to the sun equal to their surface area.

————————————————————————————————————————-

Case Studies:001

[Living City] by The Living

The project creates an ecology of facades that open and close its gills in response to air quality. The project is extremely successful in that the kinetic facade becomes a “living” membrane, beautifully blending organic and mechanical processes to create a complex system. “By exploring different patterns of movement and thickening, stretching and contracting of material, they are able to build a transparent wall with louvered “gills” across its surface. In response to infrared sensors, the gills open and close when a wire contracts. As people approach, the glass membrane opens up to let fresh air in. The facade is also praised for its application to various building typologies. In addition to air quality, the facade can react to environmental inputs such as sunlight, energy consumption, auto travel, and presence of people. The facade can also react to environmental conditions across buildings, even physically disconnected buildings. For example, the Living are experimenting with the Empire State Building and the Van Alen Institute to create a dynamic system where the buildings can ‘talk’ to each other, share data regarding the state of its own building and that of the surrounding environment. “With the facade as a location of data sensing, of communication, and of responsive performance and display, the city acquires a new layer of interactively.” Through this interactive, the building façade melts into the public space around it, its structure dissolving into the behavior of the city. Although the “Living City” offers several exciting environmental solutions, the application of this facade is limited in that it requires a number of buildings to engage for the system to operate successfully. The Living City prototype requires other buildings to have the ability to the technological capacity to capture, store, and retrieve environmental inputs. Until cities are able to provide this tech-heavy infrastructure, the “Living City” will remain as a platform for the future, a day when walls will indeed breathe.

————————————————————————————————————————-

Case Studies:002

[Flare] by Staab Architects

Created by Staab Architects, the FLARE is a modular system that creates dynamic facades for any building or wall typology. Acting like a living skin, it allows a building to “express, communicate and interact with its environment.” The FLARE offers one of the more sophisticated electromechanical systems. It is also acclaimed for its ability to adapt to a variety of surfaces, whether it be planar, double-curved, ruled, etc.. What is problematic about the FLARE system is that it does not provide a viable solution for glazing, as the panels used are opaque. Application of the FLARE system is further limited in that it does not enhance environmental conditions. Application of solar panels could be incorporated onto the external skin. The interface could then control the panel’s movement in a constrained manner to absorb the most solar energy. As of now, the facade operates more as of an interactive, aesthetic media interface. The system is controlled by a computer and can be applied to any type of surface animation. The Flare interface acts as a lateral line and receives data input from sensor systems inside and outside the building, The FLARE system consists of a number of “tiltable metal flake bodies supplemented by individually controllable pneumatic cylinders.” Due to its adaptable geometric pattern, an infinite array of flakes can be mounted on any building or wall surface. Each metal flake reflects the “bright sky or sunlight when in vertical standby position. When a flake is tilted downwards by a computer controlled pneumatic piston, its face is shaded from the sky light and appears as a dark pixel. By reflecting ambient or direct sunlight, the individual flakes of the FLARE system act like pixels formed by natural light.”

————————————————————————————————————————-

Case Studies:003

[Arab World Inst.] by Jean Nouvel

The primary focus of this facade is to control the amount of daylight that enters into the building. The glass panels are primitive, purely providing an air and water tight barrier from the outside while the second layer is much more complicated. It is comprised of 240 metal units with a symmetrical array of motor controlled diagrams or apertures that open and close every hour. The design was rooted strongly in Islamic patterning found in everything from textiles to architecture. The opening and closing of these apertures allowed for filtering and controlling the magnitude of light. Although the mechanisms do not still function, they did serve as an intent to provide new ways of interior climate control. At its time, the reactionary intent was geared more so toward manual controls. While project has an alluring aesthetic appeal, its functional and programmatic use is limited. What may be rethought are the materials, electromechanical, and tectonic methods used. Thinking in these ways may give a more efficient and dynamic system that can provide multiple solutions at once. Though the interface involves a sophisticated level of mechanical systems, the facade is predominantly ornamental in nature. An ensuing investigation could foster around how Jean Nouvel’s blurring of light respond to environmental conditions and improve the building’s performance?

————————————————————————————————————————-

Case Studies:004

[Hyposurface] by Mark Goulthrope & deCOI Architects

Among the facades researched, the hyposurface arguably provides the most compelling visual aesthetic. It is a beautiful kinetic sculpture that induces a “living” aspect through its movement and sound. The movement can be both subtle and rapid and the surface evokes a variety of sensations. The surface acts as a digital device and takes the input of sound, movement, or Internet feed to extract dynamic logos, geometric patterns, and text. The effects are tuned and choreographed in an unpredictable manner. HypoSurface uses powerful ‘information bus’ technology which sends high speed signals to control hundreds of moving actuators to deform a pliable surface, allowing high-speed movement of the screen surface. The Airpel Air Cylinder reduces running friction to exceedingly low levels, enabling smooth motion at low pressures, slow speeds, and short strokes. The Airpel can also operate at high speeds and cycle rates, with no degradation in performance. In addition, the Airpel uses a precision fi t graphite piston to give flexibility for forces ranging from a few grams to 30 lbs. or more. The Hyposurface acts predominantly as a media and interactive facade. Its used mainly as a advertisement revenue generator; to display logos and messages at trade shows, entertainment venues, and public events. It’s a design so compelling and exquisite, that aesthetics alone can justify the high material and main ten ace costs. The facade is moreover a product, rather than an architectural element. As of now, the Hyposurface does not provide the capacity to serve as an external skin, enhance a building’s overall performance. The surface, however, is limited in that it cannot be applied to an external skin. The question that arises next is how the Hyposurface can be applied as an external skin that provides environmental benefits as well as serving as a dynamic interactive media facade.