Open Thesis Fabrication
The Tracking Tile project is an investigation that combines a very interesting material and its application in the urban context.
The translucent concrete, mostly used for esthetic purposes, is experimented in a smart city element that aims to create an intelligent, responsive and dynamic ground, acting among people, vehicles and architecture.
Kaleidoscope is a research project that was realized as part of the Open Thesis Fabrication 2013.
It was an intense 4 months research and testing procedures in order to get a working prototype with digital fabrication and material experimentation. The research was focused on creating a new type of adaptive window where the intelligence is embedded directly into the object, rather than being an attachment to the system.
kaleidoscope_Open Thesis Fabrication// IAAC from Dulce Luna on Vimeo.
[BCS] Bio Ceramic System
This research describes a studio experiment developed by Iker Luna, under Luis Fraguada, inside the Open Thesis Fabrication program, in the research line of Smart Urban Elements. The project aims of exploring the bio receptivity of ceramics taking advantage of the porosity of the material that allows it to retain water and using natural fibers as complement elements to benefits other properties.
It is known that species like moss and other organisms have the capacity to grow in diverse typologies of surfaces, in particular surfaces with high levels of moisture and acceptable pH levels. Ceramics, such as roof tiles, become suitable places for the reproduction of this organism, providing even more benefit to the material performance in terms of thermal and acoustic parameters, not to mention, photosynthetic organisms help to improve air quality, and to alleviate urban heat island effects.
What we have are closed, self-absorbed buildings. What we would like to have is open, versatile, interesting and safe cities. The challenge is how to incorporate large buildings in cities where people have the same small stature and slow space they had hundreds of years ago. There is now a considerable confusion in the gap between large and small scales and between ‘quick’ and ‘slow’ architecture. Ground floor facades provide an important link between these scales and between buildings and people. For public space and buildings to be treated as a whole, the ground floor facades must have a special and welcoming design. This good, close encounter architecture is vital for good cities.
( Close encounters with buildings Jan Gehl*, Lotte Johansen Kaefer and Solvejg Reigstad)
An important behavioural factor for facade design is the support effect, which refers to the human preference for standing or sitting and being protected at a fixed point. We have lost this important factor! Buildings became introverted, boring, efficient and separated from the public space.
So the aim is to create a responsive facade that on the one hand protects the people from enviromental conditions, like sun and rain IN- & OUTSIDE of the building and on the other hand becomes part of the public space that is able to interact and correspond to the peoples needs and activities.