Transformable Architecture

It moves! It transforms?! The Sphere is only one of many bizarrely transforming toys that New York-based Chuck Hobermanhas developed in more than fifteen years. But he is also deeply into changing the shapes of responsive architecture. On the way to his current exhibit at the Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery, the inventor made a quick stop in Tokyo for an impressive presentation at, you guessed it, Pecha Kucha. PingMag wanted to know all about transformable architecture!

Written by Verena

You are kind of an architectural inventor - do you come from an engineering background or are you an architect?

My original background is in fine arts and sculpture, my first university degree. At that time I was building kinetic sculptures. And as some of these designs didn’t work as well as I would have liked, that gave me the motivation to study engineering - so my second degree is in mechanical engineering. In addition, I have a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

So, when did you start with the toys, like the famous Sphere or the more recent Switch Pitch?

I founded my company in 1990, originally operating out of my home. At that point, most of the commissions came from science museums to build public art there, so I was building these big spheres for them. But as science museums have a lot of visiting kids, they would look at my spheres opening up and the kids would scream and shout get very excited. So, my wife Caroline said “Maybe we should put this in a box and sell it as a toy.” And we started a company…

Through the 90s this toy became hugely popular and we developed a whole line of transformable toys all based on my inventions. In 2000 we entered the Japanese market in quite a big way. Then in 2004, I decided I had so many responsibilities for the sales, the manufacturing and the marketing - and no time for innovating. So I licensed the toys and now we have Hoberman Designs for the toys and Hoberman Associates for architecture and general product development.

And what are your architectural transformations built for?

Since 1990, my company has built a lot of projects in the realm of public art or even commercial attractions - it is a kind of architecture, like what we did for the Expo 2000or the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, which was really a theatrical program.

But regarding, for example, your tent shelters or the folding chair and table, you expanded the transformations with a practical environmental approach…

Only in the last four or five years it has really come into focus what the benefit, or the purpose, should be - adaptable sustainable technology: We have developed a whole series of systems for responsive shading and responsive ventilation as new methods for building facades and surfaces. It is inspired because there is an actual need for that now…

You mean changing weather conditions due to global warning? Interesting…

Over the last year and a half, we have initiated the second part of our practise which is to collaborate with major architectural firms around the world to use our transformable technology as practical elements in buildings: Ways to make facades, roofs and spaces open, or open air respectively, and close…

I guess you are not allowed to show much of that, as it is being developed right now… So back to the Olympics, please: This beautifully transforming stage curtain! Is the dome structure mechanically driven?

The structures for the Olympics are motorised. In the case of the Expo 2000, it is driven by hydraulics with cylinders. But for both the force is provided by a computer-controlled motor, that is programmed to operate according to different conditions.

In terms of realisation: Where and how to start with the transformations?

My specialty is in mechanism design which deals with materials and mechanics and also has an extensive mathematical basis as well, and that very much informs my approach. First comes the action, the movement, and how to adapt that fundamental action to a particular shape, form, or material.

In terms of means: You told me earlier that you started in 1985 with designing through programming, because the software tools were not available yet. Do you still use your customised programs?

Apart from our own custom software, we use open source development platforms and work with the Generative Components environment. Meaning, we are part of SmartGeometry: This is a contemporary movement that is quite important for architectural design to advance parametric design, which in a way is designing by algorithms.

Sounds very rational. However, your website states that you design objects that transform like natural organisms… Like what?

There is an aspect of our design practise which you can call biomimicry: It is part of the general strategy to use nature as an example to design, particularly with its performance and action. We imitate the way organisms grow or change shape or adapt themselves to different conditions. However, the transformable systems that we develop are technology and mathematically based. Basically they are a practical means to build structures or develop products that can change size and shape in order to have some structural benefit, a reason.

By the way, your work instantly reminded me also of Theo Jansen’swalking creatures that seem to be organisms of their own…

Yes. In fact, there are several of his videos at the same exhibit at the Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery. Regarding the artistic and design side, there is a close relationship between both our works. In the point of function it is quite a different approach, because my primary goal is to adapt these design ideas for functional practical approaches. Though I do continue to make artworks. What interests me is the integration into larger programs and systems whether they are architectural or for a commercial purpose.

Despite the mathematical basis, your transformations seem to trigger people in an emotional way, especially when they see the toys…

That’s right. The Sphere is so popular not just for one particular society or culture. Unfortunately, many of our toys are copied. Meaning, you can go to a small market town in China or anywhere else and see a copy. Sometimes it is our authentic product, sometimes it is not - but it goes into these extremely different cultures. If you go back to your previous question about nature, I think there is a psychological association of transformation and life. I guess that everybody picks up that emotional connection: When you see this special behaviour, you feel it in your body. Maybe a physiological connection because you get a sensation, a physical sensation and a mental and perceptual sensation…

That is why everybody can relate to it, making it so universal.

Some of these phenomena exist in many levels, it is like with the Theo Jansen works and you react in the same way. However, the emphasis that I’m working on right now is that it is more that you have the perception through the emotional connection, then take it to the next level where it begins to offer practical benefits - where you begin to believe transformation is something useful in solving real problems…

“Isis Dome” 3D: In its extended state, it forms a lamella dome whose members display a pattern of interlocking spirals.

Another dome example: No matter what shape, its perimeter stays fixed.

Very true. I also would like to know: Despite your work being based on math, your approach is still a playful one, as you said. So, invention comes of play?

I don’t want to overemphasise this, but in the broad sense: yes. I think creativity and play are very closely related. You have to have a freedom of mind…

… which might be not easy if you have a deadline…

With play you don’t have the constraints. But to create something in the way that most professional people work, you play within the constraints, so the deadline is a constraint. Also, physics and material reality are constraints…

Chuck Hoberman, inventing engineer and open source software friendly architect

That is the exciting thing - to find new ways to play within certain constraints then?

It is exciting to work within constraints, but it is also exciting to collaborate with a team. I work now with eight: Some architects, some engineers, some designers - a mixture.

Lastly, do you like to play with your own toys?

No, not really. But all of what I do is playing, all the creativity is fundamentally play. So I basically play all the time…

Thank you, Chuck Hobermanfor your awesome toy inventions! Also, we are quite eager to see your adaptable sustainable technology being realised architecturally within the next year or two!

SemiTora: seeking new ways of communication

Semitrasparent Designwas founded in 2003 by Ryoji Tanaka, Toshiyuki Sugai, Yusuke Shibata and Hiroshi Sato (who joined in a little later). Their main focus lies on exploring differnt types of networks and interactive projects as well as dealing with traditional media. PingMag went to look at their newest installation for the BEYESselect shop in the newly opened shopping complex Omotesando Hills.

Interview by Uleshka & Kyoko
Translated by Kyoko

BEYES in Omotesando Hills

“Interactive Interior” poster designed by Semitransparent Design

Can you explain your project for BEYESto us? All we know so far is, that it is an international collaboration of 5 design teams: Nanika(UK) (the new Hi-ReS!company for interactive projects), wowlab+wildcard(JP), Takashi Kamada(JP), Marcos Weskampand you, of course!

EDITWALL placed at center of the store

Tanaka: BEYES started out as an online shop. This is their first actual store. They wanted us to create an installation piece for the store, which acts more like a piece of furniture, something like an “interactive interior” rather than an attraction to lure customers into the shop. It’s not like a media art piece for a museum or so… some people might not even notice it, but others might discover its interaction and start to get engaged. We tried to make something pop and easy to understand for everybody.

This screen is integrated right in the middle of shop and called EDITWALL. The original content, which each group provided will be shown on a day-by-day rotating basis. One day Semitransparent Design (also nicknamed SemiTora) and the next day Marcos Weskamp….

We didn’t just provide our piece, but also created the system and website for this installation.

Can you tell us a little more about your piece? How does it work?

Tanaka: There are 2 CCD cameras right above the screen. The camera captures the movement of the customer and displays a filtered image on the screen in the shop. This, however, is also connected to the EDITWALL website. We use the data from this website to influence the image on the shop-side screen. The movement of the web site visitor’s cursor is displayed by a red X on the screen. See that one right there?

The other way around, you can view the shop customers’ contour and movement on the website as well.

Shibata: While you visit this website to get some information about this project, you became part of the installation without noticing it.

Sugai: When we build the website, we didn’t want to make it too obvious that you are actually participating in the installation at the same time…and yet you are, wether you want it or not. It is same for the customers who visit the store: as soon as they enter their image gets picket up, transformed into data and displayed as a visual effect. Consciously or unconsciously you become input and consciously or unconsciously motion and color- output.

Then what’s going to happen if, let’s say 30 people are looking at EDITWALL website at the same time? How will you calculate which mouse movement to display?

Tanaka: Well, if 30 people are looking at the website there will be 30 red Xs showing up on screen creating effects. This input and transformation of the installation piece in the shop by users from the website only works for our piece, though. Since we were involved in this project from the very beginning, we had more opportunities in experimenting.

What does this title for your piece “Skew” stand for?

Tanaka: Our concept for this piece was to connect the store installation with the web page. “Skew” is something I learned in elementary math class, meaning that 2 parallel lines will never intersect. However, if you imply a 3D way of thinking, the two lines might look perfectly parallel from one perspective, but when changing the perspective in a 3 dimensional space, it actually looks, as if they cross each other, even though they don’t. A little hard to explain without 3D software to simulate… Even 2 lines looks like it is crossing in 2D world, they are not crossing if they are not on the same plane.

Sugai: Like skew, our piece looks like that they are two “lines”, two worlds crossing and “touching” each other. The small cross on the screen and the store movements on the web site, but they are actually 2 individual movements…. connecting and yet seperate…. That’s why we named this piece “Skew”.

work by wowlab+wildcard

work by Nanika

Tanaka: Projects like these are the actual reason we left the pure web-design business and founded SemiTora. We seek to explore more interactive/network projects in order to find new ways of communication. We’ve made about 4 network pieces so far, connecting real space with web space and encouraging a communication between them.

I heard about a piece you provided for club WOMBin Shibuya…

Tanaka: Oh, do you mean the bathroom piece? We’ve created several pieces for WOMB… but for this particular project we installed touch screens for each lavatory bowl at the men’s and several touch screens on the walls of the women’s toilets. You could easily scribble and draw messages on the screens with your fingers. The inputs coming from male bathroom were displayed in black and the girls’ inputs were in red. It was a lot of fun to communicate through those screens.

Sugai: Yeah, you could write something like “let’s meet outside later…”

Hahaha

Tanaka: But since all screens shared the info probably everyone tried to meet outside!

But SemiTora doesn’t only do interactive stuff! I came across your beautiful, clean editorial work for The Helvetica Book, as well as an unique piece you provided for atipika JAPAN. Can you tell us little bit about thoe projects, too?

Sato: About the Helvetica book… I worked with the author of the book and was in charge of the overall design. I tried to make it really simple and straight, putting even more weight on grid layouts and typographic composition than usual. I think I learned a lot from this piece and can’t wait to apply this experience to the new project!

Tanaka: About atipika JAPAN: we were asked by the ATIPIKAdesign studio based in Mallorca, Spain to contribute somethng to their book called atipika JAPAN. We didn’t want to give them a regular graphic piece, so we created a graphic of a QR code.

And? What can you do with that QR graphic then?

You can download special software from our website for this piece and if you view this QR code through a web cam, graphic images appears on top of the QR code. It is like augmented reality…combining real imagery with computer generated images.

Wow, that’s sound interesting. Could you tell us how it works?

Through a web cam the computer determines the position, distance and angle between camera and QR code. Based on this images are applied onto QR code.

O-K-…..

You guys also joined the Japanese design conference Apartment. How did you like it to speak to a decent audience?

Sugai: We usually don’t have the opportunity to show our works to the public, so therefor Apartment was a great chance for us to talk.

Tanaka: Definitely! We would like more people to know about us, especially people in outside of Japan. (big smile)

What kind of project you would like to work on in the future?

Ryoji Tanaka, explaining his work

Tanaka: We would like to work on some “slow” interactive pieces. What we do now is mainly interactive pieces with immediate reaction. But we would like to create something which reveals a result in - let’s say - three years time….

Hmm, I don’t know if I get it right…. Do you mean something like waving my hand in front of EDITWALL now, then sort of “recording” that movement and projecting it three years later to someone else walking past the screen? Is this still “interactive work” then? Or would that be closer to leaving a message…

Tanaka: Well, maybe I shouldn’t call it interaction, but I didn’t just mean to record one thing and reproducing the exact same thing three years later. What I meant is closer to gathering inputs building up over time. Then after X amount of time, you will finally get a result different to your single experience. For this type of project, it is important to examine the environment we live in.

We’ve already been experimenting with this kind of slow interaction in a way when working for the Japanese clothing company Adam et Rope. If you visit their website now, without noticing your action gets transformed into color information and is sent to us. We complied about 3 to 4 months of data (which turned out as about 200,000 different color patches). This color information got layered - again and again - and basically created this huge image. That eventually became a poster and will also be used as a pattern for the shop’s paper bags.

I think this is one example of “slow interaction”…. Well we are just starting with those kind of experiments…

I remember other projects you did for Adam et Rope in collaboration with IMG SRC, Inc.. You created this kind of “pattern generator” on their site, where visitors would create patterns and based on their data they produced, shopping bags were printed with the users’ designs. That was beautiful!

Yes, this project has been going on for around 6 years now, I think…compiling data from web users and making into actual pieces. I never thought about it as a “slow interaction” before, but in a way, I guess that’s what it is. If the web viewer can participate in making something real and bridge this unpersonal, distant feeling the web leaves behind, I think that is very satisfying.

Definitely! Didn’t you also design T-shirts for Adam et Rope?

Tanaka: True! The motif we chose for their T-shirts was Winny. I’m not sure, if you know about Winny or not, but it was a highly controversial issue here in Japan, especially among computer users a while ago. Winny is a P2P (peer-to-peer) software that allows you to share files while you keep your identities untraceable.

Some people used this software illegally such as coping illegal files (child porn) and pirating copyrights. Therefore their developer was arrested in charge of encouraging these activities… very difficult to judge, I guess but certainly many people thought of it as unjust arrest and even raised money for him through the internet to defend him (over 11 million Yen).

Revolutionary icons or anarchy symbols are often used in fashionable T-shirts claiming to be cool and wild… we thought that what Winny stands for is truly controversial and can therefor be an icon worth printing on a T-shirt!

…those who are into fashion probably don’t know about this geeky issue, though! But Adam et Rope got it! We thought that was really cool!

Thanks a lot for sharing some of your thoughts with us today!

Interactive Architectural Action In Tokyo: The Highlights

No doubt, Tokyo is full of bits and pieces of playful architecture and lots of temporary installations that make clever use of the city’s crammed spaces. Time to gather our favourites that have amassed over the past year, for a little roundup on recent interactive architecture of several kinds! Amazing pieces we always wanted to show you…

Written by Verena

Fashion mogul Hussein Chalayan loves to give his creations a little bit of an interactive extra: an LED lit dress that looks like a walking Blinkenlightsinstallation. “Illuminating Water Dress” from his recent Swarovski show in Tokyo. © Swarovski

For a start, if we break down the term interactive architecture to its modules, then the most basic would be something like… an automatic sliding door! It might take some time counting all of the automatic doors in this mega urban sprawl. However, if interaction is addressed, we can show something like self-adjusting surfaces: vertical garden walls(soon to be revealedin Omotesando). Other techie developments, such as elegant responsive shading, are still in the making…

Interactive in architecture could be a lot more than it is now. But where to begin? How about with the least common denominator… a simple LED! Apart from this sweet nostalgic feeling we get from watching flickering LEDs as remnants of the 80s, these catchy elements are easy to use and give temporary visual pleasure as programmed. LED looks chic, so chic you’d simply have to put it on dresses as well - as Hussein Chalayan’srecent Tokyo show for Swarovskidemonstrated. And we all know the intricate relationship between architecture and fashionin terms of structures and forms that response dynamically to their inhabitants. Not only as your private LED amusement telling you the time with a flashy wrist watch…

Responsive apparel that adjusts to its wearer… © Swarovski

…oops! Also, from the Hussein Chalayan Tokyo show for Swarovski. © Swarovski

LED Light Show

Needless to say, LED elements also go quite nicely on a building’s façades… So, what’s the status quo of interaction in the (mostly commercialised) public spaces in Tokyo? Semitransparent Design, GT INC.or the ubiquitous Klein Dytham architecture (KDa)enlighten the Tokyo night skies in some sophisticated ways: For example, the latter showed once more with fashion brand UNIQLO’sbuilding surface in Ginza how an animated illumination can cheer us up. Okay, we’ve seen this before and we totally loved the Berlin Blinkenlightsinstallation - but in Tokyo you have to make a serious effort to be even noticed amidst all this neon spectacle.

I just saw a mega Tetris in Ginza, yay! Behind the steel grid flicker 1 000 bright LED elements, displaying cute little animations… Photo by KDa.

…at the UNIQLO building in Ginza by KleinDytham architecure. Photo by KDa.

Temporary Playgrounds

So, a light show can also be a temporary merriment craving for consumers’ attention: Last year, Semitransparent Designspiced up the established Christmas decor along Omotesando Street in Aoyama – the annually illuminated columns that were a nice but not too exciting sight. Semitransparent Designadded a little bit of interactive play to these sixty objects, each of them being six meters high: For the Akarium project, everybody could call the columns either by mobile or over the internet and her or his voice would dynamically control the pulsation of the lights.
Semitransparent’s Ryoji Tanaka explains: “Akarium as an illumination project has been going on for eight years. When we joined the project, the light design had already been fixed and the lights were going on and off just through time-based programming. We enhanced the project with interaction, and by placing an interactive devices in a public space, we wanted to observe the changes in people’s communication.” Which they did sort of, and a Cannes Lionwas a belated Christmas gift…

For the transfer of the voice to a visual, Semitransparent integrated their proprietary hardware within the existing light controlling system by these stylish light people from Color Kinetics. The ingredients of the hardware would convert the voice’s volume to a numeric value and transmit it to the controlling device in real time; all programmed in C.

What is that PSP doing there?? Semitransparent’s magic box… Photo by Semitransparent.

…a propriety hardware for converting a voice from a mobile phone call to a numeric value to control the columns’ pulsation. Clever. Photo by Semitransparent.

Once again, Tokyo with all of its glitzy displays, screens and high buildings that populate the cityscape like trees in a forest, is surely an ideal playground for installations like the Akarium. Or is it? “Actually, we aren’t sure whether Tokyo is the perfect place for interactive works. In fact, we try to think more in terms of a global audience since we want to reflect the actual network action on the spot. Regarding our installation, we had the shyness of the Japanese people and their independence thanks to cellphones in mind,” says Ryoji.
However: “Though using lights and architecture as installations serves as contact point, we are more interested in an environment and a lifestyle that has been altered by network technology as well as by a desocialised culture stemming from open sourceand P2P,” says he.

Temporary Drawing Playgrounds

The next step would be not only letting people alter installations with their voice - but also letting them draw on the city’s surfaces… Done! Semitransparent’s latest interactive architecture for SONY Bravia involved a whole façade of one of the company’s buildings in Ginza: As part of the ongoing Live Color Wall Projectthis summer, online interaction should put a little bit of makeup on the real world: Online surfers could see the building’s surface via webcam and change its illumination by colouring it with a Photoshop-like tool on the website’s live feed. All done in real time, of course!
Ryoji Tanaka explains: “When a users accesses the website, his mouse cursor turns into a colour picker tool. When he picks up a colour either from the video image of the Bravia spot or from the Ginza district webcam feed, he can drop the colour onto any part of the SONY building’s image, and its illumination changes immediately.” Sounds nice, and looks nice too! See below:

Shadow Plays

What else can be done with an untouched empty wall that needs beautification? How about something with a bit more character! If you haven’t seen it on YouTube yet, here we go: As part of the campaign for Microsoft’s Blue Dragon, GT INC., our beloved friends from IMG SRCand NON-GRID inc.set up a clever as well as effective projection last winter: a gigantic shadow play all over a huge Shibuya wall next to a parking lot called Big Shadow.

Once more some fine interactive works: Big Shadow, a gigantic interactive projection on a Shibuya wall, by GT INC,…

…that immediately reacts to the actions of passers-by.

When pedestrians moved past, their silhouettes were enhanced and deformed, and eventually the game’s mischevious little creatures would enlarge on the wall and play tricks on the crowd. For even more fun, users could add their creatures through a websiteand watch the results via live feed. Though GT INC.’s Koshi Uchiyama has mixed feelings: “To be honest, Tokyo is not a perfect place for interactive installation: equipment is very expensive and there are so many regulations. But with Big Shadow, we could create a pretty cool cityscape by combining the dragon’s animation-looking silhouette with the neon signs of Shibuya’s bawdy night. Tokyo’s, or perhaps I should say Shibuya’s power gave us exactly what we needed.”

Huh? What’s that done with? GT INC. used C++ and Java for reaction rate and expandability. For more entertainment, roam a bit around some further footageof this one.

Speaking of cityscapes, can projects like these have a last effect on the urban sprawl? “I think it can add a temporary excitement. But at the same time, people lose interest quickly. Most of these are actually just like reviewing the image of the very cityscapes which Katsuhiro Otomo created with Akiraand Ridley Scott presented in Blade Runner. If there is a possibility to constantly change the cityscape, a drastic method is necessary: When all the current electric advertising billboards will be switched to monitor displays…,” says Koshi Uchiyama. Ha! That would be at the other extreme of Sao Paulo’s concept of a billboard-free city…

That was pretty much it, sorry! Let us know if you spotted something brand new for our next collection…

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