thesis prep prospectus

SENSOR CITYCreating a Responsive Architecture

Through the Use of Smart Technologies

Ryan KahenThesis 2012

Thank you to my advisors and peers.

A special thanks to:

Zenovia Toloudi Jen Lee-Michaliszyn Rob Trumbour

Acknowledgements

1

Contents

Abstract 3

Research Essay 7

Methodology 19

Framing 23

Design Probe 33

Timeline 45

Bibliography 47

Appendix 48

2

Abstract

We are living in an era in where society has become immersed in the digital realm. Our current information age has considerably affected the ways in which we operate as humans. Information technologies have increased the speed of the city in ways we access, share, and communicate data. The use of mobile technology, specifically smart phones, has been a key component in the progression into this digital age. These advancements in technology are shaping the way we interact on a social level. Our newfound desire to be in many places at once, as we are when we speak on the phone or search the Internet, creates a shift in our nature of being. Due to this shift within our own personal, virtual realm, we lose the connection to our public sense of place. This thesis proposes to bridge the gap between the virtual and physical, through the use of sensory technologies. As we use technology to communicate with one another, we can use a similar means to communicate with our space, creating architecture that responds to our social participation. By creating an architecture that recognizes and responds to its users, we can experience a new perception of space.

3

Fig.1CirriformFuture Cities Lab

4

In the new speed of our city, how canarchitecture create an environment that recognizes and responds to its users, creating a new perception of public place?

6

Research Essay

7

“The computer no longer needs to adapt to the user because the opposite is true.”

We are living in an era where society is immersed in a digital world, where we perceive our surroundings by means of technology. The rapid development of technology has created a wave in our culture. Just as the automobile changed the way our world worked, from the implementation of new infrastructure and increased mobility, computers are creating a similar effect. The automobile increased the speed in which our world moved. In the same way, the computer is increasing the speed of our lives. We are easily able to access and share information as well as instantaneously communicate with one another. These advancements in technology, specifically mobile technology, has shaped the way in which we, the users, interact on a social level.

“The Computer no longer needs to adapt to the user because the opposite is true.”1 Knowing the advancements in technology, we need to ask ourselves how we can continue to build our urban context to create a

response to the growth in our digital age. Just as we use technology to communicate with one another, we can use a similar means to communicate with our space, creating an architecture that responds to our social participation.

1 Conrad (p. 63)8

Responsive Environments

The utilization of technology in our built context has allowed for the design of responsive environments. Lucy Bullivant defines responsive environments as “spaces that interact with the people who use them, pass through them or by them”. 2 These become environments that engage the user, redefining their experience of the space. Through the use of tech elements, the interaction becomes that of a digital realm. This creates an understandable bridge between the virtual world and the physical. As the user senses or creates the input, they in return experience the output. “The power of the responsive environments in this book is precisely that they are not purely reactive or entirely predetermined. Both they and their users learn from experience and redefine their sense of place.”3 The back and forth dialogue between the user and the system is where the success of responsive environments lies. Datagrove by Future Cities Lab (Fig. 2) is an interactive installation designed for the Zero1 Biennial in San Jose, CA. “Datagrove thrives on Information from its urban environment.”4 Collecting data from users and streaming Twitter feeds; Datagrove is a responsive architecture creating presence in both physical and virtual space. Through the need of an initial stimulus, whether environmental or human induced, the response becomes the result that is understood. These environments create a connection with the user as the user connects with the system.

2 Bullivant (p. 7)3 Bullivant (p. 17)4 Future Cities Lab

“Both they and their users learn from experience andredefine their sense of place.”

Fig.2DatagroveFuture Cities Lab

10

Interactive Technologies

When designing in a digital era, knowledge of technology is needed, including tools, fabrication methods, materials, and peripheral technologies. The use of this technology has begun to change the way architects and designers use and think about materials. Manufacturing tools, including computer numerical control (CNC), laser cutting, vacuum forming, and three-dimensional printing allow rapid prototyping for testing and creating components. Interactive architecture is borrowing technologies from other fields. Sensors and actuators are applied to create a high-tech system resulting in an interaction between the user and the architecture. “Currently a change is taking place in interactive media whereby increased emphasis is being placed on designing and creating interfaces, experiences, and software that are customizable, reprogrammable, and adaptable.”5 These tech elements allow for a creation in the input and output results. Through the use of software and programmable entities the designer has control over the system, creating interactions that speak to the digital age. Michelle Addington and Daniel Schodek, authors of Smart Materials and Technologies for the Architecture and Design Professions, speak of the multiple ways of achieving these tech systems. By an understanding of material properties and tech system capabilities, designers are able to push technology further to create a new interactive architecture.

5 Fox and Kemp

Fig. 3Light DriftHoweler + Yoon

Means of Embedded Computation

“The issue of controlling physical change is central to issues of design and construction techniques, kinetics, and maintenance, as well as issues of human and environmental information gathering.”6 Michael Fox and Miles Kemp’s Interactive Architecture introduces tools used in creating responsive systems. Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio created an interactive wearable technology, Braincoat (Fig. 4), for their Swiss Expo Blur Building. The coat uses information from the wearer to create a new form of communication within the installation. Rather then direct face-to-face communication, light is used based on compatibility, ranging from antipathy to affinity, of people determined by the initial questionnaire filled out upon entering the Blur Building. These designed systems need a way to receive and control the information from its context, whether environmental or social. The first part of the responsive system is the input data. Sensors are used to recognize the information and send it to the next part of the system. Sensors can be placed within two categories, contact based and non-contact based. Contact based sensors deal with direct information exchange, including touch, moisture, pressure, or wind. Non-contact based sensors read information based on presence. These include infrared, sonar, accelerometer, light, and microphones. This sensory information then needs to be processed through the microcontroller to create a response. Microcontrollers are similar to a computer we would use, but rather then performing multiple tasks, it is designed to design one very well. “A microcontroller is especially good at three things: receiving information from sensors, controlling basic motors and other kinetic parts, and sending information to other computers. They act as an intermediary between the digital world and the physical world.”7

6 Fox and Kemp (p. 73)7 Fox and Kemp (p. 78)

Fig. 4Blur BraincoatDiller Scofidio

12

Ubiquitous City

In Sentient City, Mark Shepard explains how our cities are becoming smart, due to the applications of information technologies. Our cities can be capable of recognizing, remembering, and responding. “We find ourselves on the cusp of a near-future city capable of reflexively monitoring its environment and our behavior within it, becoming an active agent in the organization of everyday life.”8 Sentient City is a look at the relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture, and the city as it is related to people in the ways they design, use, and inhabit. This notion of a smart, future city is one that places personal computing devices, which were once the foreground, into a world where they would disappear into the background. “No longer solely ‘virtual’, human interaction with and through computers in this near-future world would be more socially integrated and spatially contingent as everyday objects and spaces became linked through networked spaces.”9 This level of ubiquitous computing creates a city capable of sensing and responding to the events and people within. Today our mobile technologies, primarily cell phones, have become the new way to access, share, and distribute information. By having a personal computer in our pockets, which are becoming ubiquitous in our cities, it allows for a new way of creating sensory communications with architecture. Location based services turn our cell phones into a beacon, which can identify location, time, and preferences. Imagine walking past a Starbucks and receiving a coupon sent straight to your cell phone. As these technologies become more integrated into our cities, we can imagine a seamless stream of information beyond our personalized past, allowing for a new, smarter city.

8 Shepard (p. 10)9 Shepard (p. 18)

Fig. 5Audi Urban Future AwardCompetition 2010Bjarke Ingels Group

14

Experience of Technologies

As we enter the world of ubiquitous computing, we need to understand how these technologies will alter our experience of the natural and built environments. Erik Conrad, in his article Embodied Space for Ubiquitous Computing, speaks of how ubiquitous computing has grown exponentially. “The average American already owns twenty or more computers.”10 A computer in these terms is an object that contains information processing components, such as televisions, microwaves, and cell phones. We tend to think of these technologies as solely tools, but we need to understand their effects on our culture. As these technologies are becoming built into our environments, these ubiquitous systems alter our social interactions, saying all interactions with computers are at some level social. Conrad mentions how we tend to think in a Cartesian way, meaning the properties of physical objects are quantifiable ones. However the meanings we attribute to space are mainly based on qualitative, sensory experiences. This creates a duality between the qualitative and quantitative experience we have, forcing a pull between the two to understand our experiences of space. “Social space reconciles the physical and the mental, concrete and abstract, and if we consider all interactions with the computer systems ‘social’, then these interactions also have potential to be places where the physical and mental co-mingle.”11 These human-computer interactions can merge the two outlooks on space, creating a bridge between the sensory and tangible, the virtual and the physical.

10 Conrad (pgs. 61-62)11 Conrad (p. 63)

Fig. 6

“If we consider all interactions with the computer systems ‘social’, then these interactions also have potential to be places where the physical and mental co-mingle.”

As technologies develop, professions adapt utilizing these advancements in the progression of their field. Architecture, stuck in past ideologies, is still playing catch up to these technologies. Few are taking strides forward, using new means of tooling and design methods. As technology progresses from past discoveries, architecture can advance, through the use of integrated technologies and new means of production to situate itself within our digital age. In today’s society, the cultural norm is to have the latest trends in technology. With these rapid advancements, the demand and desire for technology is increasing. As more people own and use these technologies, they become ubiquitous. Due to this, our cities are becoming smart. Mobile cell phones offer information instantaneously in the palm of our hands, at anytime time and place. This use of technology is reshaping our culture in the way we perceive, not only ourselves, but also the space we occupy. By embedding our urban context with interactive technologies such as sensors, lighting, and kinetic systems, we can create an environment that recognizes and responds to our social participation. Through the design of responsive environments, architecture can embrace the technological movement, and redefine itself in today’s culture.

Conclusion

SOCIALLY RESPONSIVEARCHITECTURE

INTERACTION

USE

PHYSICALNONPHYSICAL

SENSORY VISUAL

TACTILE

AUDITORY

CULTURE

OF THE PEOPLE

OF THE CITY

CONNECTIVITY

MOBILITY

INFORMATION

MOBILE TECHNOLOGYTABLETS

SMART PHONES

SOCIAL MEDIA

INTERNET

NETWORKING

AWARENESS

FACTORS

ENVIRONMENTAL

HUMAN

TECHNOLOGICAL

THOUGHTPERCEPTIONMEMORYUSE

SITE CONTEXTURBAN PUBLIC SPACEBUILT

USEDISPLAY EASE

FUNCTION TIME

SPACE

MOVEMENT KINETICARCHITECTURE

CHANGE

SHAPEFORM

CHARACTER

MIND MAPPING

19

Mind Map

Mind mapping was used for the preliminary thesis topic discovery, as a method to organize thoughts, and explore many avenues of interest. By focusing on responsive architecture, I developed keywords that led to my further research and development on the topic. Some of these main keywords were connectivity, interaction, and mobility.

SOCIALLY RESPONSIVEARCHITECTURE

INTERACTION

USE

PHYSICALNONPHYSICAL

SENSORY VISUAL

TACTILE

AUDITORY

CULTURE

OF THE PEOPLE

OF THE CITY

CONNECTIVITY

MOBILITY

INFORMATION

MOBILE TECHNOLOGYTABLETS

SMART PHONES

SOCIAL MEDIA

INTERNET

NETWORKING

AWARENESS

FACTORS

ENVIRONMENTAL

HUMAN

TECHNOLOGICAL

THOUGHTPERCEPTIONMEMORYUSE

SITE CONTEXTURBAN PUBLIC SPACEBUILT

USEDISPLAY EASE

FUNCTION TIME

SPACE

MOVEMENT KINETICARCHITECTURE

CHANGE

SHAPEFORM

CHARACTER

MIND MAPPING

20

Fig. 7

21

Lost in iPhone City

The initial framing began with a representation of how our smart phones have become the new lense in which we view society. In the palm of our hands lies a mobile computer that allows for information to be accessed at any moment. This smart technology is becomming the new way of controlling our social being, but will it be the new way in which we control our city?

A study of technologies was conducted to test ways of creating a reactive system. An Arduino circuit board was used to conduct a series of senory input/output response experiments. This study allowed for the exploration of emerging technologies, becomming a new medium in the architectural field. As a result I gained basic knowledge of Arduino microcontrollers from wiring to coding.

Methodology

Frame_1

A Study in Sensor Technologies

Fig. 8

23

Arduino Test_1

The first test was to create a blink from an LED light. This was the first step to understand wiring the Arduino circuit board and writing code to produce a response. When powered on, this first code enabled the LED light to turn on for one second, then turn off for one second. This response was set to a loop so it would repeat until powered off. This test became the first building block to creating a full system, where light can be manipulated.

Fig. 9 Fig. 10

24

Arduino Test_2

The second test was focused on adding a sensor to the Arduino board. The test was to use a PING sensor that determines proximity, or a location based in space. A code was written to power on the sensor and ensure it was collecting data. This step was crucial in understanding how to add an input componet to the system.

Fig. 11

25

Arduino Test_3

The third test was a combination of both an input and output component. The system was coded to have the proximity sensor collect data based on location to the system that was determined by distance. The system was programmed to determined a set range of distances. As an object entered that set range, this triggered the LED to illuminate. The combination of the first two tests created a full system in which a sensor read data, processed the information, then turned it into a visible response.

Fig. 12 Fig. 13

26

Arduino Test_4

The responsive system, using a proximity sensor and light, was set within a housing to create an object that could be placed anywhere. This mobile system was used to study the interactions between people and the object. As people moved within range, the box would illuminate. As the users discovered its response, it changed the way in which they used it.

Fig. 14

27

Fig. 15 28

Methodology

Frame_2

Siting Strategies

Site Conditions A public, urban setting High pedestrian density Relationship to pedestrian interaction

Site Selection Downtown Crossing, Boston MA

Along Winter Street and Summer Street in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston is a pedestrian road. This pedestrian way is a highly populated route running between the Boston Commons and South Station. The street is lined with commercial and office buildings. This site allows for a response to the public, creating an interaction between the users and the space

Fig. 16Site Map of

Downtown Crossing

Winter Street

29

Fig. 17

Summer Street

Winter Street

Methodology

Frame_3

Responsive System Diagramming

As a study of responsive systems based on the Arduino testing, a series of diagrams were created. These diagrams are to show the different output responses that can be created through the use of proximity sensing. The first series shows light as the response. The sensory stimulus comes from recognition of wireless data from mobile devices, such as smart phones. The second series deals with an environmental response where sunlight is taken into effect creating a sunshading device within the system. The third series uses a kinetic response where the system would move or change form based on the users location to or around it. Each series has its own sensory component, but together can create a fully responsive system with visual, haptic, and environmental elements.

31

Environmental Sensing of SunlightIntervention in Space Intervention Responds Sunshading

Proximity Sensing of User EngagementIntervention in Space Intervention Responds with Change in Shape

Data Sensing of Mobile TechnologiesIntervention in Space Intervention Responds with Light Display

32

Fig. 18

Responsive System Design Framing

The framing was concluded with the combination of the responsive systems and the siting strategies. This began the process of thinking about these systems spatially, and how they could work in a larger context. The graphic representation (Fig. 18) shows a collection of glowing spheres overhead, directly relating to the people below. The size reflects the group, becoming larger as more people are together. The color showed a way of measuring emotion. These were ways of using the system to map and showcase social interactions within the site. Moving forward with this, the system would be designed as a suspended system. The question of how it will work, both structurally and technologically needed to be figured out. The next step would also look at the meaning of color within the system.

34

Methodology

Design Probe_1

This design probe tested the responsive system further within the site. By developing a kinetic system, the form of each component would change based on the location of a person in space. Light is used in these representations to highlight the movement of the system. Responding to a person’s place, the system also works in a temporal manner. The light is delayed leaving behind a moment in time even after the user has passed. The user not only can alter the shape of the system, but also leave a momentary instance in space. The system becomes a way to reshape our perception of the space based on human interaction.

Fig. 19

Fig. 20 36

Fig. 21

Methodology

Design Probe_2

39

Intervention Responds with Change in Shape

The second design probe looks at the sequence of the system through each response it produces. The first aspect in the system is a kinetic response. With the use of proximity sensing, the form of the componet will change creating a new overhead condition above the select group.

Fig. 22

41

Intervention Responds with Light Display

The second aspect in the system is light. As wireless data is sent and recieved, the sensor will recongize these data transfers and respond by illuminating the system. As we communicate trhough our mobile devices, our space is creating a dialogue between the users and the space with light.

Fig. 23

43

Intervention Responds Sunshading

The third aspect in the system is environmental. As the system changes form, it acts as a sunshading devide for the users below. The enlarged components within the suspended system create a comfortable environment for its users in the space. Fig. 24

Timeline

December January February

Winter Break

Continue to develop sensor technologies. Discover new possibilities with the Arduino board. Test ways of intergrating into the system.

Continue to look at sites.

Develop Responsive System.

Study its techtonics and assembly of parts.

Develop site strategies. Understand site context and site specific relationships.

Prototyping Phase.

Test methods of making the system, form, material, structure.

Build at one to one scale.

Possible fundraising.

Look for location for installation.

45

March April

Fabrication Phase.

Begin making the responsive system.

Continue funding.

Build at one to one scale.

Installation

Using one to one de-sign, install in either a site or at exhibition spaces.

46

Bibliography

Addington, Michelle, and Daniel Schodek. Smart Materials and Technologies for the Architecture and Design Professions. Oxford: Architectural, 2005.

This book is a collection and explaination of smart materials used in the design professions. Michelle Addington is a NASA engineer turned architect who teaches and researches these materials. This book is a good guide for materials and their capabilities. It covers environmentally smart materials, controlling systems, and materials used in interactive designs.

Bullivant, Lucy. Responsive Environments Architecture, Art and Design. London: V&A Publications, 2006. This book discusses the use of responsive environments. Lucy Bullivant introduces the term respon-sive installations, explaining methods of response. She supports the term responsive environment through a collection of precedents of responsive art and architecture works. It gives examples of building skins, interactive walls and floors, responsive art pieces, and exhibition spaces. This book helped in understanding how architecture can respond to its environment and how technology is used.

Conrad, Erik. “Embodied Space for Ubiquitous Computing.” Responsive Architecture Subtle Tech-nologies 2006. N.p.: Riverside Architectural, 2006. 60-63.

This article is part of a collection of proceedings from a conference in Toronto on responsive architec-ture. In his article, Erik Conrad discusses how certain technologies can alter our perception of space. He mentions the notion that computers are becoming more then just a tool, becoming apart of our culture. Any interaction with a computer can be seen as a form of social interaction. With this in mind, computers can become apart of our culture in the technological realm as well has the human.

Fox, Michael, and Miles Kemp. Interactive Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2009.

This book explores interactive architecture through the use of technology. Fox and Kemp discuss what technology’s impact is on design, the necessary tools, and the future of technology and ar-chitecture. The topic of interactive architecture is supported through a series of projects chosen by Kemp and Fox that begin to explain the different technologies that can be applied to an interactive architectural design.

Shepard, Mark, ed. Sentient City. Cambridge: MIT, 2011.

This book look at how our cities are becomming smart and technologies are ubiquitous. Shepard speaks of how our cities can use technology to recognize our presence and respond directly to us through our own technologies. Sentient City also has several project write-ups dealing with similar means of embedded tehnologies.

47

48

Appendix

Blog URLs

Kahen Design<http://kahendesign.wordpress.com/>

Arduino Test< http://kahendesign.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/tp_2_arduino-test/>

Responsive Object< http://kahendesign.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/responsive-object/>

Precedent URLs

Future Cities Lab< http://www.future-cities-lab.net/>

Howeler and Yoon< http://www.mystudio.us/>

Diller and Scofidio< http://DSRNY.COM/>

Bjarke Ingels< http://big.dk/#projects>

Appendix

49

Special Topics Studio_Fall 2012

This installation is a student-designed project for the fall 20120 Special Topics Studio. The work is the product of a collaboration between our studio class (Samantha Altieri, Viviana Bernal, Erblin Bucaliu, Katherine Bujalski, Brittany Carey, Kristen Giannone, Ryan Kahen, Mark Morin, Bao Nguyen, Samantha Partington, Charles Simmons, Liem Than, Robert Trumbour {instructor}, Alex Cabral). The installation is in response to an intensive 10-day travel component conducted at the start of the semester, including visits to design and fabrication studios in New York City, the landscape of Big Bend, Texas and to Marfa, Texas to see the work of artist Donald Judd.

The studio offered the opportunity to work at a one to one scale. Through prototyping and fabricating systems at full scale, we were able to encounter and problem solve issues not seen in previous studio courses. Working though the design schemes, we had the opportunity to focus specifically on certain aspects of design. I dealt with components of lighting to be integrated within the systems, focusing on new fabrication techniques with the CNC machine and cast moldings. I also used generative design programs to design algorithmic solutions for the system at both the scale of an individual component and the populated field.

Fig. 25Rendered Perspective looking at

the upper triangulated grid

51

Steel Conduit Pipe(Flattened Ends)

Metallic Two-Hole Strap

5/16” x 1-1/4” GalvanizedSteel Carriage Bolt

1/2” x 10’ PVC Vertical Member

3/4” .020 Type 304Stainless Steel Strapping


Metallic Two-Hole Strap(Fastened with 5/16” Galvanized

Steel Carriage Bolt)


7/8” x 20” SteelThinwall Conduit Pipe

Resin Cast Light Casing

PVC Piping

Halogen Light Bulb

Wiring for Light

Drilled Hole in PVC to House Wire

Fig. 26System ModuleExploded Axons

52

SITE PLAN

A

A

N

4

82

Fig. 27Site Model

Fig. 28Site Plan