Adaptive Architecture

Advances in technology allow Architecture to become more adaptive towards its environment and its inhabitants [1]. This can occur on multiple levels. Environmental controls such as those to control temperature, lighting and shading have clearly reached the main stream, while technologies for home automation and control are becoming more widespread, with considerable commercial interest and interest in the HCI research community [2, 3]. Beyond this, there are also much more fundamental developments. Smart materials have the potential to be used on interior surfaces and external facades to make buildings interactive and make use of their surfaces as communication media [4]. Partly inspired by Price’s work on reconfigurable buildings in the 1960’s [5] and made possible by new technologies, architects are exploring physically dynamic buildings that change shape, orientation and even location [6, 7]. Electronic communication media, such as video conferencing, media spaces and mixed reality, allow the construction of buildings that are topologically flexible across electronic space and bring together local and remote physical environments [8]. Much more recently, biometric data sensors have become commercially viable and portable [9], which would allow adaptive buildings to be controlled by physiological data taken from individual inhabitants or groups of inhabitants. These developments across multiple disciplines lead to a novel type of building architecture whose spatial and surface properties in physical and virtual space are dynamic and act as communication media, which in turn might react to the presence of inhabitants and their physiological condition.
Adaptive Architecture in this context can therefore be defined quite broadly as being concerned with buildings that adapt to their environment and to their inhabitants whether this is automatically or through human intervention. This can occur on multiple levels and frequently involves digital technologies (e.g. sensors, actuators, controllers, systems and communication technologies).

Advances across disciplines and stakeholder needs
The ongoing trend to make buildings more adaptive involves advances occurring in some separation mainly across the disciplines of Architecture & Planning, Interactive Arts, Computer Science and Engineering. These disciplines have very different aims in the development of adaptive architecture focussing to varying degrees on inhabitant occupation, urban integration, artistic expression, interaction with novel technologies and new manufacturing techniques.  Arguably, the perspective of the ‘end-users’ of such architecture is only given very limited space in comparison to the group of stakeholders that are currently pushing its development. ‘End-users’ here refers to other stakeholders, from organisations that might build an adaptive building, to the people maintaining it, to the inhabitants who live and work within it. Using the following three mechanisms, I am currently investigating this further within an ongoing Leverhulme fellowship.

Understanding adaptive architecture
In order to explore commonalities and differences between the approaches associated with the various fields introduced above, the relevant literature and adaptive architecture where it has been built and prototyped are being critically reviewed. In addition, visits to relevant existing buildings as well as to temporary installations were this is timely are being conducted. From this work an initial structured framework of the field has been developed. This categorises projects, approaches and technologies. It discusses the control, methods, effects and strategies of adaptation in architecture, in addition to a discussion of what elements are adapted when. The aim of this work is to ground ongoing research in existing work, which will be provided as a resource for others working in the area. To allow for additions and refinements, this initial version has been made available to selected peers for feedback and comments. The final version will appear in these pages.

Engaging various stakeholders
The objective of this activity is to gain an in-depth understanding of adaptive architecture from the perspective of the various stakeholders to produce a resource that future developers of adaptive architecture can draw on. To this end a series of semi-structured interviews was conducted with experts in the field. The interviews concerned the interviewees’ general research, challenges, inhabitation of and feedback about adaptive architecture in addition to discussing practical difficulties, theoretical concerns and collaborations. The initial overview of the material is already feeding into the research framework outlined above. Beyond this, it is clear that the perspectives being discussed are very broad, around adoption, change management, maintenance and ethics and trust issues.

Development Focus
The development work within this programme is focussed on my core research interest: the extension of architecture through audiovisual communication technologies. Within this larger field, I am concentrating on pushing the Mixed Reality Architecture (MRA) concept. MRA dynamically links physical office spaces across a shared 3D virtual environment. This allows for virtually open plan office environments to be constructed that include local and remote participants. The concept is proving to be a useful platform for further research and development activities. A commercial trial of MRA has provided additional requirements and specification. This is now focussing development on a new interface metaphor, the analysis of visibility in audiovisually extended architecture and the application of vision techniques to extend the functionality of such technologies.
This work is being supported by the Leverhulme Trust
  1. Spiller, N., ed. Reflexive Architecture. Architectural Design. 2002, Wiley-Academy: Cichester, UK. 128.
  2. Anonymous Authors, X10 (industry standard). 2007, Wikipedia.
  3. Intille, S.S., Designing a Home of the Future. Pervasive Computing, 2002. 1(2): p. 80-86.
  4. Bullivant, L., ed. 4dspace: Interactive Architecture. Architectural Design. 2005, Wiley-Academy. 128.
  5. Price, C., The Square Book. 2003, Chichester, UK: Wiley&Sons. 115.
  6. Zellner, P., Hybrid space : new forms in digital architecture. 1999, London: Thames & Hudson. 191 p.
  7. Bell, J. and S. Godwin, The Transformable House. Architectural Design. 2000, Cichester, UK: Wiley-Academy. 112.
  8. Schnädelbach, H., et al. Moving Office: Inhabiting a Dynamic Building. in CSCW. 2006. Banff, Canada: ACM Press.
  9. Walker, B., et al. Augmenting Amusement Rides with Telemetry. in ACE. Forthcoming. Salzburg, Vienna: ACM Press.