PROJECTS: Self-Ventilating
By using solar energy, a thermobimetal system can be smartly designed to block the sun. This strategy is especially useful when trying to prevent solar heat gain and glare to enter a building, while using no energy and needing no controls.
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Armoured Corset
March 2010
WuHo Gallery, Hollywood, CA
Project Description
The intent of Armoured Corset is to develop a skin that as the outside (or inside) temperature rises, each individual metal tile will curve and the pores of the skin will physically open, allowing the building to ventilate automatically. To investigate the capacity of this material in this application, various tile shapes and forms were tested and modeled digitally in both Catia and ParaCloud. The final selected tile was a simple: a digitally pliable, cross-shape. The dynamic shape of the overall structure allowed each tile to change parametrically, where no two tiles are identical. Depending on the length of the arms of the cross, the tiles will curve horizontally or vertically. The overall form will shrink when heated and will offset the fine-tuned balance of the structure, rocking it to maximize its shade. For this project, complex digital technology is matched with current fabrication techniques such as laser-cutting, 3-d milling and rapid prototyping.
Credits and Information
MATERIALS: Thermobimetal, aluminum, nylon string
PROJECT TEAM: Doris Sung, Debbie Chen, Jeffrey Chinn, Krista Flascha, Dong Woo Kim, Daniel Patki, Kendra Kirsch, Daisuke Sato, Dayhana Solis, Kimberly Wiebe
CONSULTING ENGINEER: Buro Happold, Los Angeles
FUNDING: AIA Knowledge Committee Grant
STATUS: Armoured Corset was built and originally exhibited at WUHO in 2010, at Art Platform in Los Angeles in 2011, at EcoBuild in London in 2011, and at LAMAG in Los Angeles in 2013.
The WUHO gallery provides a showcase for architecture and interior architecture’s myriad forms: from exhibitions of scholarly research, multi-media screenings, group photography exhibitions, drawing and model showcases, a space for full-scale mock-ups, prototypes and environmental installations, to workshops, symposia, lectures, book launches, gallery talks, performances, and community and city planning forums. In response to a popular call for drawings, Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, curator, selected a limited number of projects that challenged the meaning of 2-D in architecture.