Although we belonged to different expert groups, through our involvement with the theory of advanced architecture, we developed a high interest in non-conventional architectural boundaries and the kind of changes they could induce in architecture in matters of privacy, social interaction or even interaction of the building with the user. First, in Relational Logics The Shape of Energy of Sean Lally was our first motive towards an architectural space that is defined by forms of energy of the environment that are allowed to penetrate the building in order to be used by the architect as materials for the design of the space. Then, in Digital Logics case studies such as the Blur Building or the Rolex Learning Center introduced a whole new way of perceiving the notion of architectural boundary. In the first case, a constantly dynamic boundary and in the second the total absence of visual or acoustic boundaries that separate the indoor space of the building, challenged us to contemplate in exploring the relation between different dynamic boundaries and the architectural form generated.

One of our thoughts was flexible and ephemeral boundaries as a contradiction to the static conventional architectural ones. One application of them is the inflated structures. They use only a thin flexible membrane were only tensile loads occur and all the rest of the loading is held by a medium like air or water, a totally natural, sustainable and recyclable material. The Tea House designed by Kengo Kuma for the Frankfurt’s Museum of Applied Arts is a very interesting case study in this aspect. Also, the Media TIC of Enric Ruiz Geli could be an example of using a very simple material such as air to improve the sustainability of a structure in a larger scale.

Then we considered interactive and ephemeral boundaries which have the ability to exchange energy in various forms with their environment as well as adapt to its variations. These kind of boundaries are usually still found in installations such as the Blur Building or the Sky Ear of Usman Haque. But still they can define a very powerful boundary and an experience of the user modifying it in various ways.

This interaction between the boundary and its environment or the user intrigued as the most, so that we investigated the writings of Kas Oosterhuis. In ‘Wild Bodies’ he asserts that all true architecture inevitably will be programmed to perform in real time. Furthermore, buildings are seen as input-output devices, so that they find themselves in a state of continuous processing and adapting, a concept that was also stated in the philosophy of Deleuze for the form-finding of matter.

In order to investigate the above concepts in reality, we tried to apply some of them in an installation we made. For that reason, we used balloons, as a very light element that is filled with air, but if used in certain ways it can even produce a different kind of space and determine the movement of its users. The high flexibility of the material does not make it less important as a visual boundary while it can be still deformed easily at any time. If the ceiling of a room is covered by balloons at different heights, this kind of flexible roof can define the uses that take place under it.

Also, we tried to take advantage of a type of energy that penetrates our buildings every day and gets wasted and transform it into a useful one. For that reason we used a luminescent tape that captures the light and is being charged during the day and then releases that energy as light in the dark. This way a form of energy that is entering the space is getting exploited and affects the whole system in a dynamic way. At the same time this light is completely ephemeral.

Case study Sou Fujimoto, House N

Text Sean Lally, The shape of energy

Advanced architecture explores relations that are formed between architecture and its surroundings. Boundaries are a vital part of architecture, since the very first structures by humans, trying to get protected by the elements. Today our buildings make use of boundaries that are able to almost eliminate the influence of the changes of the environment indoors. Advanced architecture aims to restore this relationship by establishing new relational logics.

House N suggests a whole new relation between people, space and environment. Situated in a traditional Japanese neighbourhood, this exemplary building intends to visualize the contrast between the conventional housing and this new approach of space where you cannot define clearly where the outside becomes inside and vice versa. The house is comprised of three shells, each placed inside the other, defining different levels of privacy. The visual porosity of the prismatic structure enhances the feeling that the aim of Sou Fujimoto, when designing this building, was not to make an inside space rather than a gradation from the public to the private. Thus, in a time that this approach will be widely applied, the city will not be a consecutive change from indoors to outdoors but a field of gradual changes in the intensities of privacy. This way the boundary between nature and the building are blended. For Sou Fujimoto natural elements, such as trees can replace parts of the envelope of the building so that the building remains in a relationship with natural environment as well as the constant changes that occur in it.

In the text of Sean Lally, The shape of energy, the above topic of boundaries and nature is approached in a different way. Again, the architectural space is defined by forms of energy of the environment that are allowed to penetrate in order to be used by the architect as materials for the design of the space. This way architecture is directed by an energy balance equation; all forms of energy that cross the boundary of the space affect the whole system in a dynamic way which is not possible with our conventional constructing materials. In contrary to Sou Fujimoto΄s belief that architecture does not change but people and nature only change, Sean Lally envisions an architectural space that is constantly changing and adapting to the environment. Nevertheless, despite the two different theoretical approaches, the final space that would be produced has a lot in common. Even if Sou Fujimoto believes in the stability of architecture, the elements are allowed to enter his house and create a dynamic alteration of the way the user perceives and feels the space according to the parameter of time.

As future research, I would be interested in obtaining more knowledge in the topic of the dynamic architectural boundaries and explore what kind of changes they could induce in matters of privacy, social interaction or even interaction of the building with the user.

(Image Source Sean Lally, The Shape of Energy)