Project Name: Sensor Wall

Scope: Prototype 2009

Redesigning interior and exterior partitions became the domain of this research prototype. We considered walls to be more than static, mute geometry – walls that are capable of physical transformation, and of sending information. Questions we developed were to examine physical and spatial separation that is built up of thin sheets, monolithic, fibrous, to one that is transmissive, directional and shared. A basic prototypical module is a framework holding an array of pins held by springs, with a thin membrane stretched among them. As each pin is pulled and pushed on one side, the membrane is deformed to show the 'imprint' on the other side. As a wall component, this allows for a partitioning of space that is negotiable and shared. Each pin in the array has an individual circuit board that is serially linked to each other to a central processor. When the pins on one side are pushed and pulled, the difference in position is converted to information that can output to be visualized. The physica wall has another order of intelligence that can be output to a display, or to another architectural system.

credits:

Sigurdur Orn Adalgeirsson
Jens Borstelmann
Pim van Wylick