#Θέμα : Wireflies
#Φοιτητές : Αγγελοπούλου Δ., Διαμαντη Β. Καραντάκη Μ.
#Χρονολογία: 2013
#Μάθημα: Thesis
project ,MArch GAD, RC7 studio
#Σχολή: The Bartlett -School of Architecture UCL
#Επιβλέποντες: Jose Sanchez
DETAILS
Angelopoulou Dimitra
Diamanti Vasiliki
Karantaki Meropi
Studio by Jose Sanchez
The Bartlett -School of
Architecture
UCL
MArch GAD 2012/2013
Angelopoulou Dimitra, Diamanti
Vasiliki, Karantaki Meropi (Iro) are architects, designers and game developers.
They gained the Bachelor’s degree from the Architecture School of the Aristotle
University. In 2013 they graduated from The Bartlett School of Architecture
(UCL) with distinction attending the MArch postgraduate program GAD. Their
research focused on architecture and video games, computation and digital
design practices.
BRIEF
Wireflies is their thesis
project at MArch GAD, RC7 studio by Jose Sanchez. It explores the potentials of
creating an architectural system through a playful design process. It is about
user’s creative expression, who through decision making explores new strategies
in architectural design. The idea is to create an open sandbox video game as a
discrete kit of parts that could be assembled and dis-assembled resulting on
different aggregations. Wireflies
game explores new building blogs of architecture working around the collection
of the wind energy and its distribution. Players can use light patterns to
intuitively redefine the topology of the circuits and information networks that
run through the building fabric.
Wireflies Project has been
awarded with the silver award from The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL).
WIREFLIES PROJECT
The project revolves around
the collection of wind energy and its distribution. More specifically, the system consists of 4 different types of
components: the wings, the batteries, the wires and the laps or sockets. The
wing captures the wind and converts it into energy (electricity), which is
stored in the batteries. The produced energy flows through the network of
wires, while the light/socket indicates the transmission and creates a glowing
pattern. The components are kept together thanks to magnetic connections and
the LED infrastructure detects the pressure of the system. The fundamental element,
which provides the input to the system is the wing, the placement of which
should be strategic, not only because it defines the structure, but also
because of its functionality. It captures the air, introduces the energy to the
system and generates the light pattern. The wings are constantly dynamic: they
move, sense and react to the environment and to the wind characteristics. They
are devices that can open up in the air, expand in order to channel and guide
the air particles inside the component.
WIREFLIES AS A VIDEO GAME / APPLICATION
The main goal of their
research was to prove out how game mechanics could suggest a new design
thinking. The only way to do so was by releasing an operational prototype of
the game in order to get and evaluate feedback from the data collection
process. From the beginning Wireflies
was not about a specific architectural outcome, but it was about making a link
with the community of players that could hopefully suggest what is the fertile
ground where this project could exist. The most interesting thing about
designing Wireflies as a game in
contrast to conventional design practices is that it offers multiple solutions
to a certain problem according to the player’ s special desires and priorities.
The challenge of the project had mostly to do with motivation and engagement of
different users.
Therefore with the release of
an operational prototype of the game, users from different backgrounds, who do
not have any relation to architecture, can have access to it and send their
feedback.
The project is establishing a
relationship between the designer and the self-organized system and it
repositions the role of the architect and the designer. The project suggests
that self-organized systems need feedback from the moment they provide an
output that informs the human element on the next decision-making step. The
system allows the human element to observe the process, provides a continuous
information flow that makes the designer or the user realize that he is
interacting with the process, and finally, the system allows for human
intervention.
WIREFLIES AS A PRODUCT
Wireflies has been developed
both digitally and physically. Exploring how the digital version can become a
product, models had been fabricated, in order to test the magnetic connections,
the electricity transmission and the pattern continuity. The components create
a circuit expressing all the computation behaviours they
have in the digital model. The system operates by rotating the components so as
to match the pattern and light it up. The elements had been carefully designed
in more detail in order to hide the complexity that is behind and allow the
user to create his system in a more playful way. Wireflies are planned to become a real product and to be released
as a construction toy kit at first with a limited number of the basic
components, while at a second stage, they are planned to progressively increase
in number and scale.
Wireflies proved that it can
work in simulation and it can work in reality. Furthermore, it is an example of
providing architecture with another perspective. It gives architects the
opportunity to design the structure manually as well as it lets the components,
the building parts learn, replicate or find their way to compute.
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