Image: nate steiner | Flickr

Samsung has come out with a transparent smart window, and I think it will be interesting to see how this impacts architectural design. You see, such a smart window provides much added functionality — particularly if certain apps get created for this particular “window-type” smart use.

Now, before I go on, I’d like to show you what these transparent smart windows look like. Here’s the video:

So, will such a smart window do much to improve architectural design? Or could it destroy an architectural design if not integrated correctly? Well, I think it can do both, depending on how it’s used.

I think the placement of such smart windows will be paramount, as will attention to making sure technology isn’t getting in the way. You see, such a smart window is really all about what is going on inside of a room. But I question — what will happen if the window begins to use apps that also take into account what is going on in the nearby exterior? What if the window becomes more truly interactive?

Suddenly, this transparent smart window will act as a …[Read Full Article]…

Image: jurvetson | Flickr

Lately, many technologies are surfacing that help with the tracking of a person’s physiological signals for health. Such a technology is sleep tracking technology which monitors heart rate, movement, and breathing. So, when a person lies in bed sleeping, data is being collected about the quality of that person’s sleep. (1)

Yet, what can you, as an architect, do with such data to help your occupants? And can architecture be the go-between that pulls from data which tracks health, to emitting environmental stimuli which promotes health? Well, I say the answer to the latter question is yes, and for the answer to the first question: read on.

Just imagine if the two could work together: tracking health and promoting health. With tracking, you would find health problems, and with promoting you would treat and prevent health problems. Thus, to make this work, the tracking device and the architecture would need to communicate.

As the device detects shifts in the …[Read Full Article]…

Advancements involving architecture are most always a great thing. But what happens when such advancements like technology detract from an architectural design? I think the answer to this lies in the hands of the individual architect for that given project —specifically regarding what aspects of technology they choose to make visible versus invisible.

You see, technology for architecture can bring much value to a project — giving it new kinds of capabilities. But there are also times when a given technology exudes “side-effects” which conflict and/or detract from a design. An example of this “foe” relationship between architecture and technology can be seen in all sorts of building types ranging from retail stores to hospitals.

Take, for instance, the lighting in a clothing store. If not specified correctly, flourescent lighting in the dressing rooms may detract from the very purpose of the store: to sell clothes. The painful lighting makes those trying on clothes look worse, not better. Conversely, well specified lighting would be semi- invisible technology as it would make the occupant benefit from great lighting, without thought of where it is coming from. It would simply become a seamless part of the shopping experience.

In hospitals, medical technology helps to save lives, makes the building more efficient, and serves to assist patients in pain. There exists a “friend” relationship between architecture and technology until…those side-effects surface. From lighting to the aural environment, hospitals could stand to be better. After all, painful lighting from …[Read Full Article]…

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to control your house or other environment with your mind? Well, advances in brain computer interfaces are beginning to make much of this a reality. You see, certain brain computer interfaces can feed off of the electroencephalograph (EEG) signals from your brain, to then translate them into commands that are sent throughout a given building. (1)

If you look for them, you will see that brain computer interfaces are beginning to surface — take for instance the emotiv epoc headset which uses similar technology to what I described above, where this neural headset feeds off of the EEG signals from the brain.

But what does this mean for architecture?

For starters, the notion of control within environments will be going through a shift. As such brain computers as the emotiv epoc headset continue to be refined in their development, it may be possible to assert environmental decisions with less physical action and more mental reliance. This does seem to be great …[Read Full Article]…

3-D viewing of objects is something that many designers (particularly architects) are always in search of doing better — for, building design models that take the form of physical prototypes or even virtual prototypes (as is built within the computer using digital media) most often become limited in what they can tell a designer about their designs.

But what happens when a 3-D viewing system is developed that can scan a real-life object and put it on display so that, as a person walks around it, they are viewing it in real life? Or, what if a 3-D system could present your digital model — again, so that one could walk around the model and view it just as if it was real-life? And then the real power comes in when you add interactivity to that model. Well, a group of students at Tsinghua University, in China, have designed just such a 3-D viewing system.

The beauty of a system like this is that you could have a combination of the best of both worlds: 1) a three-dimensional representation of a virtual model that you could walk around and interact with, and 2) an augmented reality model within which can be programmed functionalities that go beyond zooming or panning the model itself, but involve aspects about the model’s design that impact …[Read Full Article]…

Brain EEG

Researchers at the UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) have developed innovative CAD (computer-aided design) software called CAVE-CAD that, when integrated with novel hardware to monitor human neurological and physiological responses, makes architectural design more efficient. CAVE-CAD also adds an important feature missing in conventional CAD: an ability to immediately experience the consequence of modifying design.

Source: UC San Diego News Center, CAVE-CAD Software Will Help Mine Human Brain to Improve Architectural Design

This exciting latest development of CAVE-CAD means great things for the evolution of occupant-centered architectural design. While this instrument is used to measure occupant response to an immersive experience of an architectural building design decision, I see many other uses for such a development that can really help our profession as well as all people that experience architecture.

To give you a better idea of what this simulation/experiential tool can do, please watch the following video which will show you CAVE-CAD in action, while also explaining some of the research team’s future plans for development:

As you can see, CAVE-CAD is a great instrument for testing architectural designs in terms of how occupants will be likely to experience them. As an immersive testing and design tool, it is possible to make design changes on the fly while simultaneously analyzing how an occupant would respond to …[Read Full Article]…

Image: tr.robinson | Flickr

So often, as an architect, attention is paid to the visual senses as masses, materiality, and even lighting are carefully chosen for a particular design vision. But how do you as an architect target more intangible things, like building air quality?

I read an article recently that describes one way to track patterns of building air quality changes within a room. You see, by using a sensor-embedded Roomba, researchers were able to “map” any detrimental changes in a room’s air quality as the Roomba traveled about its path. So, the next question becomes — what to do with such a map?

First, I would say that air quality within an environment is quite important. And by understanding more about the quality of air within a room’s design, you may be able to spot leaks,off-gasing, or even toxins that invisibly impact your occupant’s health. While using the Roomba is a novel idea, it does invite one to think about …[Read Full Article]…

Image: Biscarotte | Flickr

Have you ever thought about the significance of lighting in terms of how it affects your daily activities and your ability to perform them well? Lighting interiors can make a significant difference in carrying through the intent of how you want your building to function, whether it be a retail clothing store, a hospital patient room, a residential design or a school classroom.

In the following four examples, I will be presenting you with how lighting can make a significant difference in helping a building design to perform better and be more effective —

• Retail Clothing Store Design: Have you ever been within a retail clothing store where the clothes look so beautiful on the rack (as they are illuminated well there)? Then, you select your size off the rack and proceed to a dressing room to try them on. Low and behold, it looks terrible because the lighting overhead in the dressing room is flickering, makes noise and/or distributing an improper color. Needless to say — the sale was missed. Be sure to notice the good stores who get this right.
• Hospital Patient Room: Within a hospital postoperative recovery room, there comes a point where it is important for the patient to engage in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) — various grooming activities. But for a recovering patient in the hospital who has been sick it can be a huge effort to go into the bathroom to engage in such activities. Now what if when …[Read Full Article]…

Image: -Marlith- | Flickr

There are many times on this site where I write about new sense technologies that are evolving and making their way into the mainstream, and I often encourage you as an architect to think about unique and creative ways that you can integrate this technology into your design to make it better for your occupants — this is a distinction from simply using technology “just for the sake of using it”, but rather to use it when the time and place is appropriate so it can bring newfound innovation to your design vision.

There are other times in many of my articles where I discuss incorporating a “just-in-time” design intervention, where you strategically place something within your design to improve the lives of your occupants at just the right moment — such as helping them to achieve a goal. Now, this is important because when you unite the power of what sense technologies can do with this notion of a “just-in-time intervention”, you have the ability to engage with your occupant in real time, and if done in the right way you can really make a positive difference in your occupants’ life.

See a “Just-In-Time” Design Intervention in Action

In the following video, you will see a design group demonstrating what can happen when technology and design ingenuity merge. You will see a simple, yet great example of a “just-in-time intervention”, where this group of designers have transformed a simple staircase that sits next to an escalator — all in hopes of seeing if they can get more people to use the stairs instead of the escalator. Of course, this would create a positive impact on those that use the stairs, since they would gain potential …[Read Full Article]…

New interactive tools are surfacing to help architects do their job better. One such tool is a multi touch 3-D architectural application which can be used as both an interactive table device and a larger scale screen projection. While I can see such devices being helpful to architects for brainstorming, project reviews, coordination meetings, and client presentations, we really should ask — is this just another “cool” device? Or, does it really help architects like you to do your job better?

Before we go on to talk further about the application technology, I think it best to show you a glimpse of what such multi-touch devices can do:

As you can see, 3-D visualizations are developing past solely working with still renderings or even scripted and locked in place animations — which today mostly run as “replays” of camera movements that serve to walk someone through a space along a predesignated path. But what makes these new multi touch virtual reality environments even more helpful is that they give architects the ability to …[Read Full Article]…