Materializing a responsive interior: designing minimum energy structures

This paper discusses a series of design-led experiments investigating future possibilities for architectural materialization relying on minimum energy structures as an example of adaptive structure. The structures have been made as laminates of elastic membrane under high tension with flexible frames possessing arbitrarily shaped holes. The structure is highly amenable to shape changes, which has been demonstrated in the case of electrical actuation of the elastic membrane (Kofod, Wirges et al. 2007), however, other means of actuation are possible, involving stimuli such as temperature (Lendlein, Kelch 2002) or light (van Oosten, Bastiaansen et al. 2009). All in all, this approach could form a whole new design paradigm, in which efficient 2D-manufacturing can lead to highly flexible, low weight and adaptable 3D-structures. This is illustrated by the design and manufacture of electro-active structures based on dielectric-elastomer, where energy-minimization and self-organization principles become central processes for the realization of shape-changing architectural surfaces. In Reef, a concept for self-actuated ceiling surface, we examine the integration of these dynamic structures into an architectural context by questioning how these technologies can be appropriated so as to reconnect the home with natural rhythm and cycles.