Sens[e-Res]ponsive Architecture Workshop: Project 01

Team 1

Vasilis APOSTOLAKEAS
Panagiotis CHARVALAKIS
Danae HARATSIS
Caroline HIMPE
Georgios INGLEZAKIS
Michalis KANTARZIS
Paulina KOWALCZYK
Stelios PSALTIS
Türker Naci SAYLAN
Avra TOMARA

Scenario 1

Our first scenario involved the theme of life-cycles.

Children develop empathy through viscerally experiencing the connections among life-cycles in natural and man-made environments. Instead of taking an architectural setting for granted, materials, architecture and technology are blended together and dynamically respond to the seasons’ change, special events, time of day, the age of the children, and more.

What technologies generate these life-cycles? First, spatial changes as well as visual and perceptual affordances are created through digital and analog programmable kinetic elements.

To sum it up, our first team was assigned to create spatial configurations to help children understand the notions of ‘time’ and ‘change’ through play.

Proposal

Sensponsive Life Cycles is a spatial configuration designed to augment childrens’ perception of the notions of time and change. Consisting of autonomous units, Life Cycles is a “sentient” system that develops its “personality” according to the stimuli of its environment. By employing proximity, movement, acoustic, touch/pressure and light sensors, each unit implements the use of colours and motion to communicate with the user: children. From their side, children are introduced to a staged “playtime”: Anticipation, surprise, pleasure, knowledge, strength and poise are the phases a child will experience in a course of perceiving “relative times”. Because of its collectivity though, this system attempts to provide children with adequate knowledge, landmarks and memories, invoking a more integrated perspective of “real

time”. In the long run, entertainment, urban landscaping and in-depth stimulation are Life Cycles’ aims and “desires”.