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Project name Open Columns
Organisation University at Buffalo
Persons Omar Khan et al.
City
Country
Period
URL http://cva.ap.buffalo.edu/opencolumns/
Tags architecture, structures, responsive environment, CO2, self-organization, systems, complexity, emergence, adaptability, resilience, nonlinearity, materials, technology, augmented materials,
Text Open Columns is a system of nonstructural columns, made from composite urethane elastomers and can be deployed in a variety of patterns to reconfigure the space beneath them. The system is a mutable architecture that responds to its inhabitants by changing its shape based upon the carbon dioxide (CO2) content in the air. It is capable of learning about its environment by directly acting within it. The genesis of this research and design comes out of an interest in self-organizing systems, which exhibit phenomena of nonlinearity, instability and adaptability. Open Columns is part of a research project exploring computationally inspired and augmented materials for responsive architecture.