Net House - Flexible Skin Mechanism

Flexible Skin changing shape by altering the height of skin. and can create subtle partitions for different number of participants.

Flexible Skin Breathing according to the nature of activity inside.

Exterior of Movable Club House of various shape

Interior of Movable Club House with extendible floor platform

Interior of Movable Club House

Side view of Movable Club House showing bulging flexible skin and extendible floor.

Image showing the mechanism of ceiling and platform. The change is activated by simple up/down motion of flexible skin attach points. Extendible floor move to cope with scalable space.

Mechanical test for extendible floor.


Skin Mechanism design 2

Net House - sliding platform structure

Testing for sliding platform structure

Net House-story (2011.02.18)

< Concept >

The NET HOUSE is an smart architecture that facilitate the interaction between people by using the metaphor of social media.

1. Users' activities and habits will be tracked and people with similar profile will be gathered in the system.

2. A

Movable and kinetic Clubhouse (bar, theatre, entertainment space) moves along programmed tracks to invite people joining the activities held in it, which create physical connection, like an invitation in the virtual world.

3. The Movable Clubhouse space and individual spaces link together. People walk into another space and participate the activities naturally and voluntarily.

< Story >

Tom is living in his net house. When he listens to music, reads books or even cooks, the house could record what kinds of food he prefers, what kinds of book he likes to read and analyze his hobby and interests based on his daily activities.

In this video, we want to demonstrate the living environment could detect and record your behavior to the system.

The whole building (or even the residential districts) is actually a smart network system to analyze each person’s daily life and then analyze people’s common interests and provide public activities like themed party or exhibition to connect people who have similar qualities, profile or hobbies together. Just like the social networking connect people with similar profile.

At a Friday night, Tom is watching TV at his house. Suddenly, the building tells him the clubhouse is holding a theme party about the UEFA Champions Soccer League, which he may be interested in.

The moving clubhouse moves to Tom’s house and be next to his French window. Tom finds there are so many neighbors are also the fans of soccer and even the fans of AC Milan. He open his window and steps into the clubhouse and joins the party, and has a perfect time enjoying the activity and watching the game with new friends together.

Structure testing:

The spatial appearance of "the movable club house" will be changed according to the number of participants and the nature of activities. For example expanding volume when there are more people, more vibrant movement of the overall shape for party, etc.

Net House-original concept(2011.02.11)

Net House - Social Network Smart Architecture

Social media has developed virtual networks on the Internet, and everyone is tied into an account characterized by one’s own profile and habits. The project started as an idea to translate the social media activity into physical world, and engage people to interact in real life. Imagine in a building, each modular apartment is a personal account, and the environment will learn about one’s life by detecting the activities, smell, color, music, etc so as to create individual profile. People with similar profile will be linked invisibly by the system and facilitate their interaction in daily life. Movable public spaces (bar, theatre, entertainment space) move along programmed tracks to create physical connection, like an invitation in the virtual world, and gather peoples with similar profile and enjoy activities among them. The challenge has been to create a responsive mechanical architectural system that executes the invisible links between people by intelligent digital control and management system. The system should be smart enough to facilitate communication but not invading the choice and private life of individual person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCMoLWVEe44

Assignment One - Kinetic Wings by Jackson Choi

1. I planned to build a extruding lotus shape structure with one module inside another module. (3:30pm 7 Feb 2011)

2. Mechanic structure of movable parts was explored.


3. The structure was too complicated to be built in one night (the deadline was at 4:00pm on 8 Feb 2011), so the plan was changed to the idea of "Kinetic "Wings"

4. The flipping mechanism might be achieved by an off-centered spinning disk. However it worked good only for one pair of wings! Horizontal main axis would crash with vertical axis if there were more than one module. (10:00pm on 7 Feb 2011)

5. The joints between main axis and vertical axis should be flexible ones. A wavy spinal main axis was built for a evolving movement. (10:30pm on 7 Feb 2011)

6. Different wavelength and altitude were tested for best flipping pattern.

7. First skeletal structure was built on 2:00am on 8 Feb 2011.

8. Basic mechanism was completed but needed some touch ups for aesthetics.

9. Additional plastic feathers were added to provide enriched texture for the structure. (3:00pm on 8 Feb 2011)

10. Final structure completed with smooth movement. (3:45pm on 8 Feb 2011)

Assignment One - Gear Wave by Zhu Yi Bing