Environmentally-responsive architectural surface
Designed by Mark Goulthorpe of dECOi Architects, the Aegis project consists of an interactive mechanical surface that deforms in real-time based on various environmental stimuli, including the sounds and movements of people, weather, and electronic information.
The Hyposurface is comprised by a matrix of actuators, which are given positional information via a highly efficient bus system as well as an array of electronic sensors used to trigger a variety of mathematical deployment programs. The Hyposurface effectively elevates a highly responsive pneumatic mechanical system to a level of articulate and fluid control through its interception by a highly performative digital control.
dECOi Architects’ goal for the Aegis Hyposurface is “to utterly radicalize architecture by announcing the possibility of dynamic form, and to then explore the cultural possibilities afforded by this new medium. It is, of course, a harbinger of nanotechnology—the intersection of information and matter itself.”
Contact: MIT Department of Architecture, Cambridge, MA, USA.
For more information, see Transmaterial: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine our Physical Environment
