Buildings get wise to the future

Article by CNN Future Summit, September 8 2006

Bill Gates and Microsoft might be striving for a future where integrated in-home computer systems do our chores while keeping us warm and entertained, but a new breed of architects have a different vision for how, and where, we will live in the future. They are working to create smart buildings that act as living systems, able to change shape to match the needs of the people inside and the changing weather outside.

Tristan d'Estree Sterk, a pioneer developing smart buildings and founder of The Office for Robotic Architectural Media & Bureau for Responsive Architecture, is developing shape-changing buildings using "actuated tensegrity" - a new systems that uses rods and wires manipulated by pneumatics to form a building exoskeleton. They are able to move in response to sensors on the outer shell of the building or the conditions within it.

'A fully-integrated, living system that is sensitive to the environment is the next stage. Intelligent systems for home interiors are just not sustainable because of the amount of energy they command," Sterk told CNN. "We're living in an age when we are aware of dwindling energy resources and an increasing premium on space within cities. We have to react and we're looking at the natural world to inform how we design buildings."

"The 101 Tower in Taipei, currently the world's largest building, has a movable steel ball on its mast to dissipate vibration. While it works, it still seems like a silly way to deal with the problem. You wouldn't put a heavy weight at the top of a tree. It bends and flexes in the wind and is stronger for it. Imagine a skyscraper where the wind would be able to flow through the external structure and so reducing shaking. The building's exoskeleton would also have the ability to gently twist in the wind to control the buildings center for gravity. The result is that architects can build taller buildings more efficiently," Sterk told CNN.

Sterk's partner Robert Skelton has been dealing with the complexities of the task by developing new calculations in maths and geometry to inform all aspects of the building from its electromagnetic properties to its physical form. Coming from a background in aerospace engineering, he saw ways in which responsive structures used by spacecraft, for instance, to shield themselves from the sun, could be applied to buildings. "What we've done is use sophisticated geometry but with common materials" Skelton told CNN.