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    • By showing how the movable adaptable elements of architectur

    2018-10-29

    By showing how the movable, adaptable elements of architecture can become an essential part of the building, the Maison de Verre provides an important precedent for responsive components in buildings. Because of their scale, materiality and relation to the human body, these movable elements are inherently interactive: they are designed to become an integral part of life in this house. And through their proximity to and inextricable involvement in everyday actions, these devices take on a potent role in terms of symbolic and poetic expression.
    Second case: responsiveness at the scale of the building It is the building׳s south facade that I will be concerned with here: light passing through its fully-glazed surface is filtered through a screen of operable diaphragms which were capable of reducing their apertures in the case of strong direct sunlight (Figure 1). The zones of the plan are distinguished more by the quality of natural light than by any other factor – each of the building׳s facades presents a semi-transparent veil through which light is filtered to the interior, but only the south facade incorporates automated components which respond to changes in the environment. As a piece of machinery, the design of the south facade׳s 27,000 diaphragms and the mechanics of their control is not as complex as it first appears. Not all the 73 diaphragms in each panel are operable – only 57 are capable of motion. The diaphragms in each panel are controlled in two independent groups by linear actuators, each of which is associated with its own light mst2 (Figure 2). In total, there are 480 light sensors controlling the same number of individually actuated groupings of diaphragms. Each panel is encased with a single pane of glass on each side, and is able to swing in toward the interior for maintenance. The south facade was criticized at the time of the building׳s opening for the doubtful relevance of its recreation of the moucharabieh, a traditional form in Islamic architecture. Given the building׳s other facades, which are consistently precise in responding to variable qualities of light, I believe that it makes sense to assume that the primary environmental function of the south facade diaphragms was to regulate the quality of light in the library, offices and other south-facing spaces. Unlike the Maison de Verre, whose mechanisms of adjustment are clearly analog, the south facade of the Institut du Monde Arabe is an example with comparable architectural ambitions that is electronically controlled and relies on sensor data and embedded computational elements. The south facade was ambitious at the time in its implementation of a electronically controlled mechanism on such a large scale. The sheer number of light sensors used to control the panels, and the fact that the surface is divided into as many individually functioning parts, indicates a desire for precise and local registration of light levels across the facade. Rather than changing all panels at once in response to a general shift in solar illumination, each panel was intended to operate with complete independence from the others, revealing a map of local variation in light levels across the facade. This variation in the performance of each individual panel would have been noticeable from the interior, particularly in spaces like the library where large expanses of diaphragms were visible at once; and particularly from the exterior, where the entire facade can be seen and where the differences in the openings of each panel would have presented a pattern responsive to changes in solar illumination. This is the experience that I believe the south facade was designed to produce: the recognition that the automated mechanical motion of the south facade׳s myriad diaphragms was responsive in a very precise and immediate way to changes in the environment. No discussion of the south facade is complete without acknowledging that the diaphragms failed to function as intended. It is not clear what part of this problem was due to faulty design and what resulted from a failure of the client to properly maintain the complex mechanism. Litigation over these questions began even before the building was completed. Wherever the blame may lie, within three years of the building׳s opening in 1988 the diaphragms were controlled centrally, bypassing the 480 sensors embedded in the wall; and within six years the diaphragms had ceased to function entirely. Although an inadequate maintenance regime was surely part of the problem here, it is also evident that greater attention to the long-term viability of the mechanisms during the design process could have contributed to the lasting performance of this remarkable responsive facade (Figure 3).