Prototyping responsive carrier-component envelopes

Abstract

© 2017, The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong. The capacity to respond dynamically to changes in external and internal environments open new possibilities in the interaction between buildings, humans and the environment. The development of dynamic envelopes requires the integration of various systems- geometric, structural, and electronic-responsive and their interaction. The paper reports the results from the "Dynamic Cloud Project" and presents a design and fabrication methodology to integrate kinetic behaviour with material constraints; the simulation of responses by connecting components with programmable input and behaviour. The paper presents a modular, component-driven systems construction based on a carriercomponent surface geometry called responsive carrier-component envelope (RCCE) and describes the modelling, fabrication and assembly of such envelopes. The protocols developed in the project are reported in the paper and highlight the opportunities and consequences of how local components relate to the whole carrier envelope with multiple constraints and scale considerations. The results of the prototyping and experimentation with this project are reported in the paper. The paper also discusses future applications of the research and outlines new possibilities and design opportunities in prototyping responsive carriercomponent envelopes.