Nature and technology are often thought of in separate terms. Sometimes you see the two juxtaposed, but in more and more buildings today your are now seeing them work side-by-side, feeding into one another’s space — not struggling against each other, but working well together. This is the power of building green by using technology.

In the project called Vertical Eco-Cibernetic City, by Orlando De Urrutia, you can see all of this. This building, inspired by the base of a tree (which extends to look for light from above) is designed as an “alive machine”. The designer’s intent is to create building systems which are self-sufficient and bio-climatic. In short, this design takes advantage of the many aspects of nature and feeds them into the building, creating quite an amazing architectural display.

Putting Architectural Technology to Good Use

An instance of what I am talking about can be seen in this building’s skin, which uses nanotechnology through geometric façade patterns. Such a skin takes advantage of light and shade while also incorporating “vegetal panels”.

Technology is also incorporated into the building through communication networks, which can be seen Read more

In this video you will see an innovation called SuperCilla skin. This is an interactive and haptic building skin that serves as an energy source due to the movement of its small members. As you watch, imagine how the uses of this skin could vary greatly depending on the scale of the object around which this skin is wrapped. A small object with SuperCilla skin could move itself across the floor, while an object like a building could use this skin for an array of aesthetic, functional and sustainable needs. Also, it is interesting to imagine how our haptic interactions might affect such a design installation.

VIDEO REVIEW

SuperCilla Skin is described as an “array of magnetically actuated transducers that can record and playback physical motion”. This type of skin can be wrapped around any shaped object. It can be applied to many scales such as to a large building. In addition, SuperCilla skin is also a Read more