Human Skin (re) inventing materiality?

Once again, during the exploration of new materials I found a very deep relation with the human body, human skin is the most complex material ever, from the point that it reacts to any change in the environment, generating physical changes and developing systems in it to protect and provide information to the body so it can generate protection systems to contra rest the outside phenomenon so it can develop in a suitable way.In the re invention of materials exists a tendency in the search of how a material can act in response to the facts that are interacting with it, replying the theory of cause and effect.This new materials are called response materials, sensitile is an example of this kind of materials it made out of hundreds of light guides carved into a transparent block of acrylic polymer to create each tile. Together, these fiber-optic elements shine and sparkle in response to moving light and shadow it also picks up and disperses nearby colors. The human skin reaction when it’s exposed to sunlight it develop a change of color to protect the body, so the material is not protecting anything at all but it generate some changes out of the interaction with light as the human skin does.Blab Italia has design some tiles called living surfaces developed in two different materials glass and floor tiles made out of layers of acrylic and magnetic particles, so with people interaction the tiles generate physical changes, but some how the changes we get to see in this response material hark back skin’s reactions to cold or hot objects or different climates.As well The Living Company create systems and materials that can perform out of the interaction with people and they recently design a system called kinetic glass that response to external particulars made out of a series microprocessors that react to unhealthy earth, generating a physical deformation of the glass.Besides this architectural materials in robotics, Takao Someya Group developed a synthetic "skin" that is almost as sensitive as our own skin in terms of temperature and humidity, in addition they are trying to make it elastic like skin. Another synthetic skin in the works by Scott White and team is a self-healing material.Consequently the group of all this materials in one indicate us that the researchers and developers of new materials is to redesign a new skin that can have as much as function, volume and color changes, flexibility, malleability, self healing, like the human skin in order to provide to architecture and design in general, the possibility to generate intelligent objects that can response to the phenomenon they are exposed to and at the same time objects that can work together with the environment for the good of our planet in terms of sustainability.

Complex Geometries and our body

Architecture is inevitably concerning associations. Many of those associations are geometric in nature or body where we can find a geometric expression.When we think complex geometries it easy to conclude that the human being is searching for this phenomenon naturally in the way that we live in a constant relationship with the most complex structure ever developed, the human body. Architecture is a visual art in which we experience three dimensional spaces. The art of a building is foremost concerned with form and with dividing and articulating space. A building should express their uniqueness and bring order and relation to its surrounding environment. As an example of what we mean, the D-tower is an articulate hybrid of diverse media, where architecture is a fraction of a well-built interactive organism a perfect analogy of the human body. The building is designed by NOX, where standard and non-standard geometries together make up a complex surface (computer generated) this surface is very similar to a body part, a heart constitution. In a diferent perspective I can look to a house like the human body, occupies a space but with occupants and time it will become a place. The visual beauty includes lines, shapes, and colours. Colour is used to accentuate its form and the material it is made from, as well as distinguishing its divisions of space. Rooms which are shaped differently with different materials reflect different qualities. We express feelings from an architectural form or a specific aspect of architecture. The external features of architecture communicate feelings and moods from one place to another. Our emotional feelings toward where we live can be incorporated in our architecture interacting with the environment. The awareness of our bodies can be related to the place where we live. There is a comparison of our bodies to our home.

Ted, ideas worth spreading

TED is a sort of worldwide community of exchange of facts and ideas. I found the main concept interesting, and there’s apparently a selection of ideas based on their merit, and also their innovative information. It has an attractive design, user friendly, where you can find everything organised.I think Tedblog is a great way for thinkers to recognize each other’s efforts, and organize blog posts around important topics, and improve the overall level of conversation in the blogosphere. The post’s come in edited “editions”, just like magazines or journals. The fact that these posts are edited (and usually annotated)collections of links lets them serve as “magazines” within the blogosphere, and organised in themes can earn their readership by providing high quality collections.Since the information on this blog includes lots of posts on specific topics, they also serve as a place to connect with those who are expert (or at least highly opinionated!) and those who are interested in those specific fields or just curious about it.

Robotecture

Robotecture is a weblog about the emerging practice within architecture that aims to merge the digital virtual with tangible and physical spatial experience, “focus of this blog is how interactive architecture can serve as a means for designing and building environments that address human communications in entirely new ways”.With a very focused reporting on what could be easily identified as interactive architecture, interactive installations for large scale architectural projects, focus to include interactive furniture, experimental projects at universities and research groups, and interesting new materials that I believe will transform how we apply technology into the built environment.I’ve read here extremely interesting aspects of interactive architecture because increasingly this technology is becoming invisible to the naked eye. There is a couple of articles that I really loved and fulfilled my own curiosity in potential of interactive architecture.As a whole I find projects that suggest a future where integration of digital systems into the fabric of the built environment, rather than having computers as distinct objects embody what interactive architecture is about. Hopefully this will enable people to move around and interact with computers more naturally than they currently do.