No-Mech Kinetic Responsive Architecture Kinetic Responsive Architecture with no mechanical parts Anna Maragkoudaki Faculty of Architecture NTUA Athens, Greece an.maragkoudaki@gmail.com Abstract— Kinetic architecture has been in the center of architectural discourse utilizing technological advances [1] to establish itself in the reality of the built environment. Despite the large number of researchers and realized projects, various issues have prevented these solutions from being incorporated vastly into conventional building design. Over the past years, responsive architecture, computational design and material science have been collaborating to form a novel design strategy. In this recent and diverse field of study architects experiment in kinetic architecture through material technology aiming in low energy consumption designs that fulfill their purpose more efficiently. This technology employs a specific group of smart materials that present kinetic properties when triggered by external stimuli. These materials differentiate from others due to a common characteristic: their ability to move with no motors or mechanical parts. A number of related projects has been analyzed not in order to draw definitive conclusions but to communicate some kind of initial concerns about this emerging and interesting field. These projects depict surfaces that respond to environmental data gathered from their immediate environment or human interaction, and form systems that aim to produce a sustainable architecture. Keywords-kinetic; responsive; nonmechanical; smart materials; I. INTRODUCTION The ongoing request for more environmentally friendly buildings and cities has created the need for optimal utilization of the technology produced by modern day society. Reducing greenhouse emissions and energy consumption in buildings and structures in general is becoming an imperative need for an architecture that aims to be environmentally sustainable in its substance. In order for these goals to be achieved the design systems need to focus on creating surfaces, horizontal or vertical, that utilize renewable energy whilst being adaptable to changing conditions. Having a material system that can support the above and at the same time be low-cost, low maintenance, easily obtainable and replaceable is essential. For example in buildings, and even more office towers where the scale is significantly bigger, the mediator between the internal and external environment is the facade. This building skin, more often a glass surface, usually relies on the heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems (HVAC), to control the internal climate of the space and compensate for the heat loss of the glass, thus resulting in huge energy expenses [2]. Even if the building skin is a kinetic structure responding to climatic data and using renewable energy resources, if the material system is of high maintenance and great built costs, it does not qualify as a truly sustainable architecture or compensate for the gained resources. A new experimental field based on kinetic responsive architecture has emerged over the last few years. Material design technology as well as computational architecture has provided the tools for the development of a new type of materiality. Labeled here as “No-mech Kinetic Responsive Architecture”, this experimentation with specific types of smart materials, that possess the ability to move without mechanical parts, has produced a new stream of designs that can also be described as minimum or zero energy structures. II. ANALYSIS A. Definition No-mech Kinetic Responsive Architecture refers to the architecture that has the ability to transform over time by incorporating smart materials that undergo purposeful change in accordance to external, environmental or not, stimuli. These smart materials have the ability of movement ingrained in their structure and operate either autonomously as sensors and actuators at once with zero energy needs or as actuators combined with electronic sensors and minimum energy supply. B. Related concepts The title components mechanic, non-mechanic, responsive, kinetic and architecture, apply to the same concepts universally thus further analysis is unnecessary. On the contrary issues concerning operating processes and strategies are of key importance. Cybernetic theory, described as the science that studies complex system organization principles and how they function, is inextricably associated to responsive architecture. It is applied through a threefold process system, input-processing- output or in other words sensor-processing-actuator, provided through the observation of organic and inorganic systems. Furthermore Biomimetics, the study of biological systems and their application on science, has disclosed the way living organisms function. No-mech Kinetic Responsive Architecture is affected from both these fields, obtaining the material and 2013 9th International Conference on Intelligent Environments 978-0-7695-5038-1/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE DOI 10.1109/IE.2013.23 145 2013 9th International Conference on Intelligent Environments 978-0-7695-5038-1/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE DOI 10.1109/IE.2013.23 145