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Overview of the Interactive/Kinetic Archetype. Image Alice Mangoyan
The Architectural Association Visiting School in Athens, as part of the AI research agenda,
has continued its investigations to challenge the static built environment with its 2014
installation entitled Kinetic Haze. The project investigates the possibilities of architectural
modeling via scripting, digital fabrication, and large scale installations.
This years investigation follows the theme of the previous years work entitled Cipher City:
Recharged, in which the creation of complex form-making systems resulted in the
discovery of interactive design patterns. Following their discoveries in 2013, students in
this years program further investigated kinetic and interactive architecture in their new
study entitled Revolutions. After a series of design ideas were developed by smaller
groups of students, the teams collaborated to create the final prototype Kinetic Haze in
less than five days. Read on after the break to learn more about the project.
This interactive installation seeks to redefine the concept of the architectural pathway.
Standing at 2.5 meters tall, 1.2 meters wide, and 4.5 meters long, the structure is made of
wooden frames and elastic strings wired with motion sensors and actuators. The pattern of
the woven elastic cords is designed to affect the visual perception of the viewer and
respond to their movements.
The life-size prototype bears the behavior signature of that of a primal organism. When an
initial user appears, the structure is put into a hostile state in which its flexible muscle-
type strings vibrating nervously, blocking the entrance. When a second user appears the
prototype shifts into a friendly mode allowing the two users to walk into the structure and
interact. Time and light are also utilized to augment the perception of space in the
structure. Vivid flickering lights encourage the users to move out of the structure after a
period of time and the overall experience promotes communication between the users
experiencing and those viewing the prototype.
Kinetic Haze was the result of a combination of ideas from five different groups at the AA
Athens Visiting School. To learn more about the individual work by the students to develop
the prototype, read their descriptions and see the gallery below.
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by Evan Rawn
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10/29/2014 AA Athens Visiting School 2014: Students Challenge the Static Built Environment with Kinetic Haze | ArchDaily
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Fibrous Light Projections. Image Alexandros Kallegias
Digital Simulation of the Interactive/Kinetic Archetype. Image Alexandros Kallegias
Lighting Patterned Paneling. Image Alice Mangoyan
4fan: (Katerina Bali, Ismini Epitropou, Efthymia Kasimati, Maria Velaora): Aspired to
expand the human perception of space, 4fan team develops frameClouds; an
interactive system that allows the user to engage in a play with the built pathway. The
10/29/2014 AA Athens Visiting School 2014: Students Challenge the Static Built Environment with Kinetic Haze | ArchDaily
http://www.archdaily.com/549686/aa-athens-visiting-school-2014-students-challenge-the-static-built-environment-with-kinetic-haze/ 3/6
Model renderings. Image The Oscillators
View through the Interactive Archetype. Image Alice Mangoyan
frameClouds design follows a tessellation pattern based on the division of triangles.
The division pattern is analysed and three strategic intervention points are chosen.
These points are used to place air-fans in order to form different fields of interaction
with the user. The material system consists of plastic bags which are following the
triangulated pattern. Due to their flexible, transparent and unconstrained characteristics,
plastic bags are chosen to fulfil the selected grid. They allow light to go through, giving
eventually a gradient visual bumping effect. The air-fans are activated by sensing the
users presence. The bags inflate and deflate and the space is converted from a straight
corridor to an experience of refined limits and augmenting duration as the user is drawn
to occupy an ever-changing space.
HMN (Hazem Halasa, Dimitra Askouni, Nessma Al Ghoussein): HMN team creates a
model that is characterised as Communication through Separation. The concept entails
a transformative separation between two people through the structure. A barrier
entangling the passageway endeavours to create a kinetic distinction that allows the
users through to the other side without the element of visual communication with one
another. It plays on the notion of needing another individual without every knowing who
they might be or how they might complement them in means other than passing through
the structure. It is necessary to keep the users separated in order to heighten this
experience of interacting with the unidentified and emphasising the under-rated notion of
dependency. The interpretation of the passage manifests itself in a barrier that is slit
into horizontal components that deform as the barrier compresses/expands. These
deformations would sometime allow the exposure of parts of the users, hinting/teasing
them into trying to guess their partner, but never fully revealing one another. The linear
division complements the triangular reading of the structure, and also leads the users
into using the passage to guide them in a linear direction forward.
10/29/2014 AA Athens Visiting School 2014: Students Challenge the Static Built Environment with Kinetic Haze | ArchDaily
http://www.archdaily.com/549686/aa-athens-visiting-school-2014-students-challenge-the-static-built-environment-with-kinetic-haze/ 4/6
Overview of the Interactive/Kinetic
Archetype. Image Alice Mangoyan
View through the Interactive
Archetype. Image Alice Mangoyan
Fibrous Light Projections. Image
Alexandros Kallegias
Lighting Patterned Paneling. Image
Alice Mangoyan
Structure Assembly via Scaled
Prototype. Image Alice Mangoyan
Constructing in Triangles. Image
Alice Mangoyan
Digital Simulation of the Drawings in progress . Image Concept fundamentals . Image
Purple_Haze (Daphne Dimopoulou, Michail Tavladorakis, Christina Bali): Inspired by
materiality, Purple_Haze team proposes a system of elastic strings attached onto the
pathways structure. The placement of the strings is arranged perpendicular to a
persons walk through the pathway, bridging the two opposing sides of the model. As
the person enters the path, the prototype shifts from its initial phase to the second
phase in order to welcome the user within. Sensing devices transform the dormant
architectural piece into an active system; mechanical motors lift up the strings, whose
flexible materiality allows them to stretch, thus opening up the path visually.
Purple_Haze successfully combines the sophistication behind an Arduino controller
with the natural characteristics of stretchy springs to form an interactive architectural
model which is driven by the human presence and which is affecting the human
perception of space.
The Oscillators (Konstantinos Sfikas, Anastasia Verteouri, Eirini Stolidou, Nikos
Kourniatis): Redefining the concept of the architectural pathway, the Oscillators team
creates the Nervous Corridor. This interactive passage archetype is divided into a total
of five zones; each zone has a different reaction to human presence. According to a
persons distance from the edges of the pathway, the model moves from a relaxed
state to a tense state. On its material characteristics, the Oscillators have tested
various textile systems; from pleated fabric to allow movement, to elastic transparent
membrane and thread-covered triangulated structures. The materiality allows for a more
animalistic behaviour when triggered by the motors as it is flexible and has a phase
difference on its transformation. Approaching the models edges triggers an
unpredictable behaviour of the textile system while the central zone is considered as
the safe friendly zone. Soft and chaotic oscillation occurs while the user travels from
one side of the pathway to the other.
Wave(X) (Maria-Eleni Bali, Zoi-Dafni Arnellou, Catherine Berki): The creative
combinatory approach of various material systems together with the intelligent use of
the Arduino electronic microcontrollers enables the invention of the human-scale
interactive pathway made by Wave(X). The prototype is put in action at the moment a
user passes through it by deforming its malleable fabric surface. The physical model
consists of wooden fixed beams, wooden moveable vertical elements and a malleable
metal net attached on the wooden structure. The interaction takes place by sensing
movement within the pathway. Horizontal rails start to move inwards and outwards thus
deforming the metal net attached onto them. A perfectly synchronized motion of the
rails creates the feeling an enclosure that follows the user walking through the pathway.
The smooth movement of the rails followed by the smooth net recreate that of a wave
travelling through space and matter accompanying the person moving within.
10/29/2014 AA Athens Visiting School 2014: Students Challenge the Static Built Environment with Kinetic Haze | ArchDaily
http://www.archdaily.com/549686/aa-athens-visiting-school-2014-students-challenge-the-static-built-environment-with-kinetic-haze/ 5/6
Cite:
Rawn, Evan. "AA Athens Visiting School 2014: Students Challenge the Static Built Environment with
Kinetic Haze" 20 Sep 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed 28 Oct 2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=549686>
Interactive/Kinetic Archetype. Image
Alexandros Kallegias
Wave(X) Wave(X)
Models sketches. Image Wave(X) Systems diagram. Image 4fan Proof of concept . Image 4fan
4Fan Team Presentation. Image
Alice Mangoyan
Concept applied in 1:1 scale . Image
4fan
Barrier Visualization. Image HMN
Conceptual diagrams. Image HMN Simulation via processing code .
Image HMN
Informative action diagram. Image
Purple_Haze
Arduino setup . Image
Purple_Haze
Analysis diagram. Image
Purple_Haze
Model renderings. Image The
Oscillators
Reaction mechanism diagram. Image
The Oscillators
Model testing. Image The
Oscillators
10/29/2014 AA Athens Visiting School 2014: Students Challenge the Static Built Environment with Kinetic Haze | ArchDaily
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