MNelson_FinalDocumentation

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Another Brick in the WallA taxonomy of responsive unit systems

Maggie Nelson

Sentient Architectures: at Home Studio

Rodolphe el-Khoury with Nashid Nabian

Documentation: Research Summary and House Design


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Static, standard Brick Wall

Breaking Down the Barrierhttp://soundb

iteblog.com/category/consumer-credit/

http://soundbiteblog.com/ca

tegory/consumer-credit/

Concept:

Breaking Down the Barrier

Though bricks remain a fundamental building component

worldwide, in current practice, a brick wall is viewed as

a fundamentally static object. The notion of brickwork,

especially in the United States, often goes hand in hand

with historical or classically-style construction, but is

rarely seen as a progressive or modern materal. In fact,

the brick wall is more often associated with a barrier or

hurdle to be surpassed.

This prevailing point of view does not have to be the norm.

I propose that, with reference to a couple of important

architectural precents, and with the help of Arduino, the

perception of a brick wall can be radically changed. By

redesigning the brick unit and enabling it with technology,

the notion of the brick wall as a barrier can be disproved

and deconstructed.


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Casa la Roca: Block detail

Precedent:

Ofce dA | Casa La Roca; Tongxian Art Center

In the context of expanding the potential of basic

architectural building blocks, there are several precedents

for the unusual implementation of brickwork. The rm

Ofce dA began to explore this eld in their use of terra

cotta blocks, bricks, and tiles in their design for the Casa

la Roca. In this instance, the standard spacing between

bricks was modied to develop patterns and a techtonic

of folding within the structural wall; square terra cottablocks were implemented in varied degrees of rotation in

order to establish a gradient of transparency in a structural

block wall. While this project was never constructed, the

multiple different reinterpretations of standard building

blocks is a powerful reference. More recent work related

to inventive use of bricks is evidenced in their project for

the Tongxian Art Center in China (see oppposite page).Casa La Roca

Allimages:h

ttp://www.ofceda.com

Casa La Roca: Brick Wall




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Downspout detail, Tongxian Art Center

Tongxian Art Center, BeijingAllimages:h

ttp://www.ofceda.com

Entrance, Tongxian Art Center


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Gantenbein Winery: Brick detail

Precedent:

Gramazio + Kohler | Gantenbein Winery

More recently, the Swiss architects Gramazio and Kohlerhave established themselves as leaders in the innovative

use of brickwork in structural walls and facade design.

Their work is facilitate by a robot which constructs

specifc brick patterns based on the codes produced by

the architects; this is a necessary part of the process

as their wall designs would be virtually impossible to

construct otherwise. Working in research at the ETHZurich as well as in an architectural practice, this pair has

notably constructed a winery in Switzerland where brick

spacing and rotations convey an image of grapevines

three-dimensionally. Gramazio and Kohler also explore

designs related to sliding/translating bricks, such as

for the Jahrhunderthalle Parking Garage in Bochum,

Germany (see opposite page).Gantenbein Winery

Allimages:h

ttp://www.gramaziokohler.com

/

Gantenbein Winery: Interior




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Allimages:h

ttp://www.gramaziokohler.com

/

Jahrhunderthalle Parking Garage, Bochum, Germany


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SAHRDC Interior light detail

Precedent:

Anagram Architects | South Asian Human Rights

Documentation Center

For their design of the South Asian Human Rights

Documentation center, Anagram Architects chose to

work with a brick facade. A six brick module is laid in

staggered courses that create twirling vertical stacks and

an undulating surface. There were several objectives that

this brick screen wall was attempting to achieve, such as

a high level of porosity in the central portion of the wall,reducing solar/thermal gain, and the use of a method of

construction that could to optimize the space available on

site and a modest budget. Through computer modeling,

the architects found a simple rotating module of bricks to

create the visual and textural complexity need to achieve

all of these design objectives.

South Asian Human Rights Documentation Center

Allimages:h

ttp://www.archdaily.com/5851

9/south-asian-human-rights-documentation-centre-anagram

-architects/

SAHRDC Facade Exterior




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South Asian Human Rights Documentation Center, New Delhi, IndiaAllimages:h

ttp://www.archdaily.com/5851

9/south-asian-human-rights-documentation-centre-anagram

-architects/

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Institut du Monde Arab: Interior Aperture detail

LInstitut du Monde Arab, Paris

InsitutduMo

ndeArabphotographsbyMa

ggieNelson

Institut du monde Arab: Facade Exterior


Precedent:

Jean Nouvel | Linstitut du Monde Arab

LInstitut du Monde Arabe (Institute of the Arab World)was established in Paris in 1980 to disseminate

information about the Arab world as well as to promote

cooperation and cultural exchanges between France

and the Arab world. Jean Nouvel won the 1981 design

competition with his innovative yet risky solutions. In

particular, Nouvel uses a responsive facade to mediate

environmental conditions with a system of dilatingmetallic irises that recall the geometric motifs often found

in Islamic architecture. These irises are actually 240

motor-controlled apertures, which open and close to act

as brise soleil to control the light entering the building.

The mechanism illuminates interior spaces with ltered

light an effect often used in Islamic architecture with

its climate-oriented strategies.



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InsitutduMondeArabimagesbyMaggieNelson

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Double-Skin Facade Diagramfrom:Facades:PrinciplesofConstruction,Knaacketal

Brick Rain-screen Cladding System

http://www.buildbetterwalls

.com/why_invelope/index.php


Technical Research:

Rain Screens and Double-Skin Faades

While historically, bricks have been used structurally and

for thermal mass, current practice has moved to lighter,

more efcient structural systems of steel or timber framing.

Thus the common brick used in residential construction

has taken the form of a rainscreen. These facade

systems encompass a wide number of applications and

materials, proven to deter rainwater intrusion into walls.

Rain screens shed most of the rain and manage the

rest while providing the aesthetic face of a building; they

include the following elements:

- Vented or porous exterior cladding

- Air cavity (a few inches of depth is sufcient)

- Drainage layer on support wall

- Rigid, water-resistant, airtight, support wall

Beyond the re-purposing of the brick, another interesting

development in contemporary construction is the rise

of the double-skin faade, resulting from the shift of

various functions related to the interior functions of the

building immediately behind the faade. For example,

instead of installing ventilation systems in the building,the ventilation can be provided by thermal insulation

between the two layers of the faade.

By combining these two concepts, this project seeks to

develop the brick acting as a rainscreen and exterior

layer of a double-skin facade, to mediate both light and

heat gain. In placing moving bricks in front of a glass

facade, the system responds to environmental factors to

create adaptive interior conditions.

Concept | Context | Initial Study | Product | Prototype | Further ExplorationNV JS ON MN ZH FGD JD YB RA


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Initial Study

While precedents in research towards expanding the

implementation of the brick unit have a dynamic feel, they

are of course static systems. In this project, I propose to

animate a standard brick wall to create a truly dynamic,

interactive system. By capturing video input from the

space adjacent to the wall and mapping brightness

values to brick rotations, it is possible to create a three

dimensional interpretation of the image. Furthermore,

as bricks rotate, they will allow for various levels of light

to penetrate the wall and into the space, adding another

dimension to the translation of video.

To further develop this concept of brick rotations in

three-dimensions and the corresponding transparency

they allow, two factors were altered from standard brick

dimensions. First, the brick was imagined as a hollow,tubular block, to allow more light to penetrate this building

element. Secondly, form of the brick unit was also

adjusted to allow for a close spacing without the risk of the

bricks hitting each other. This involved a parallelogram

shape rather than a typical rectangular one, thus giving

the ability to rotate freely up to 90 (see diagram at right).

The data ow to realize this idea involved rst using

Processing to capture video input, then conditioning

the data to average and divide the image relative to the

number of brick units. Then, this data was sent to Arduino,

where a brightness value for each portion of the image

is converted to integers and mapped to brick rotations

(see following page for logic ow chart). The following

pages contain logic diagrams, the codes, and images of

the completed and working initial system.


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Rotating Bricks in alternate courses

Light Modulation Through Brick Facade


Product Development:

Environmental Conditions

Once the basic oncept of rotating bricks was conrmedwith the initial prototype, the input conditions were

reexamined. While mapping video input to rotation is

an interesting experiment, its architectural implications

are limited. If this same idea could be applied to the

adjustment of a faade in response to environmental

conditions, however, the system has a much greater

potential to organize space and create a variety ofexperiental conditions within the home.

In following the lead set by buildings such as the Institut

du Monde Arab, the next iteration of the product is light-

seeking bricks, whose degree of rotation is conditioned

based on temperature and exterior lighting conditions.

By following an environmental logic, the brick system

attempts to modulate heat and light gain through the

facade for control of the interior space. Thus the Light-

Seeking Bricks act as a kinetic cladding system, with

variable porosity to create variatbe aesthetic conditions

within the home based on environmental readings.

To create the prototype system and physically stack

moving bricks, the kinetic bricks occur in alternating

courses, sitting atop static bricks, within which are

embedded the light and temperature sensors to direct the

brick rotation. Each section of static bricks is supported

from the rear by a lightweight structure, which could be

suspended cables or another minimal system, though is

modeled in the prototype with plexiglass for maximum

transparency. The entire system acts as the rainscreen

portion of a double-skin faade, in front of a glass faade

that acts as an air and water barrier and drainage plane.



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Topic EMBEDDED TECHNOLOGY PATENT[14]LIGHT-SEEKING BRICKS (2010)

Patent Number: 1,234,567

(54) Patent for LightSeeking Brick Wall

(54 ) METHOD OF AVOIDING THE

TYPICAL STATIC WALL CREATING

ADAPTIVE LIGHT CONDITIONS BY

PROGRAMMING INTELLIGENT ROTATION IN

ALTERNATING COURSES OF BRICKS

(76 ) Inventors: Maggie Nelson,

with Rodolphe el-Khoury and Nashid

Nabian

Correspondence Address:

MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave

CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139

TEL: + 1(360 ) 481 2682

(21 ) Initial Application: STUDIO -

SENTIENT ARCHITECTURES AT HOME

By adjusting the standard brick shape to a

parallelogram form (fig. 1) the traditional

brick wall configuration (fig. 2) can be

freed of its static nature. By embedding

light and temperature sensors in each unit

of bricks(fig. 3), and controlling each

brick with its own motor, the standard

building block can become the basis for an

intelligent wall system. Reacting to two

inputs to control light transmission andheat gain, bricks can independently rotate

to various angles to close (fig. 3) or open

(fig. 4), as well as to animate, the wall.

The system creates adaptive interior

lighting conditions based on environmental

input.

[23] ABSTRACT

(22) File d..............2010

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3 Fig. 4

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NVJSONMNZHFGDJDYBRAConcept | Context | Initial Study | Product | Prototype | Further Exploration


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Brick Translations create Window Aperture as well as variable porosity in the faade

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The Sentient Home:

A Taxonomy of Responsive Brick Systems

With the majority of the facade enveloped in a doubleskin of glass and responsive bricks, the home equally

makes reference to the standard structural brick

tectonic. Incorporating a zone of corbelled bricks allows

the sentient home to more readily make reference to

the historical use of brick while exploiting the contrast

between the static and responsive systems. The

corbelling brick encloses the most private area of the

home, the master bedroom, then slowly unravels to

wrap around the remainder of the home, transitioning

through several different tectonic systems as it takes the

form of a responsive double-skin facade.

A folding brick wall marks this change from structural to

non-structural brick applications, while equally serving

as a garage door and as an operable screen on the

upper oor for the master bedrooms outdoor terrace.

As the porosity of the facade increases, the form of the

buildings exterior begins to change. Using the stair as

a central organizing element in the home, the facade

creases as it reaches the staircase and begins to curve

around the interior spaces as it leans outward. In a

nal move, the wall folds down to the ground to take the

shape of a brick-paved patio outside the living room and

kitchen.

A window cut into the structural brick wall reveals the

massiveness of the corbelled porttion of the home, while

another window cut out of the rotating brick rain screen

reveals the thinness of this system in contrast to the

former. This lightness is also emphasized as the roof

curves back, allowing the rain screen to peel away from

the builidng and expose its non-structural nature.

In order to more fully experience the rotating facade

system, both levels of the home benet from an in-

between zone, shielded by the brick rain screen but

open the to exterior air. Furthermore, the upper oors

terrace includes a band of translating bricks, which

sense the presence of an individual and slide apart to

create a window opening for views to the street.

One might argue that the rotating or translating

elements of a lightweight rainscreen can no longer

be considered bricks. However, maintaining the brick

form factor throughout the facade allows the interactive

system to invoke the elements of surprise and wonder

as a seemingly tradition material is operated in an

extraoridinary way. It is this unconventional application

of a conventional system that serves to provoke us to

question the way traditional materials are used, thus

these dynamic units must also be considered to be

bricks. The home serves as a taxonomy of systems to

heighten this contrast of responsive versus typical brick

tectonics.



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insert section perspective

Rotating brick faade references the familiar tectonic, but with variable porosity


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Site plan showing orientation and surrounding single-family homes.

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Ground Floor Plan



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Second Floor Plan

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..

BROO

KLINEST.

Home in situ, showing sun exposure and roof plan.



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Exterior Perspective showing home in context.

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Diagram revealing successive section cuts of brick wall as it creases and leans outward.



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Exterior Perspective from street level.

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Section Perspective revealing foor structure spanning between steel columns and corbelled wall.

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Translating bricks foraperture creation

Rotating bricks forfiltering light

Corbelled bricksshape space

Folding brick wall for garageentry; designates transitionfrom brick as structure tobrick as responsive cladding

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Corbelled wall tectonic



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Interior View showing sunlight streaming across corbelled brick wall .

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Folding wall tectonic



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Folding brick wall provides opening for garage and master terrace.

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Translating brick tectonic



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Translating brick band creates an opening within brick raincreen.


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rotating brick facade creates dappled light effects inside the home.

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The following pages show further experiential renderings of rotating brick facade at various times of day.



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Exterior View showing the array of brick applications at play in this sentient home.



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