Environmental Sensing and Actuated Architectures

Summer Semester 2011 | ICD Seminar
Diploma 2.2.6
CAAD / CAM II

Prof. A. Menges, S. Reichert, G. Aparicio, F. Ernst


Buildings constantly undergo changing environmental conditions. Today, these environmental factors can be sensed using simple micro-controllers and sensing technologies. These conditions applied to buildings can be described and simulated using parametric technologies through their morphological and associative relationships. Designers can implement these dynamic relationships to produce their own digital performative design tools in the design and operation of buildings.

In this workshop students will be introduced to both sensor technologies used in urban sensing which measure flexure, temperature, humidity etc. using an Ardunio micro-controller and the related parametric software Grasshopper to simulate the responsive nature of architectural design informed by Arduino. By the end of the seminar students will have gained firsthand experience using technically sophisticated computational design processes enabling the construction of computational systems which continuously sense and adapt to their environmental dynamic conditions.

Requirements: Participants in the seminar are required to attend the ICD’s Advanced Software Workshop introducing the basics of Arduino and Grasshopper (9-11 June). In this workshop, students will build their own circuits used to sense and control parametric design parameters. For the seminar, proficiency in Grasshopper is advantageous but not strictly obligatory. The block seminar and the Advanced Software Workshop will be taught in English.

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