Essay

Featured Image Takeaway Design Strategy:

Have you ever thought about a building skin being used to broadcast real-time information? Perhaps it doesn’t have to be a direct broadcast, but rather an interpretation of information — a sort of architectural information visualization. The image above is simply to get you thinking about the exterior of your building skin, as an element which can pull or push data. Such data can be conveyed to occupants within or to building visitors in the exterior, or even perhaps to a surrounding community that can see or hear this broadcast. If you could do this for your project, what type of information would you want to broadcast? What type of information would you want to translate through your design? And how would you hope that it impacts your occupants and surrounding culture?

To Apply This Strategy, Ask Yourself:

FIRST, ASK YOURSELF WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN SUCH BROADCASTED DATA AND ADVERTISEMENT — WHICH YOU WOULD TYPICALLY SEE ON A BUILDING EXTERIOR. HOW DOES IT SERVE OCCUPANTS AND COMMUNITIES BETTER? AND WHAT CAN IT DO THAT ADVERTISMENTS OR TYPICAL SIGNAGE CANNOT? DOES IT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF REAL-TIME UPDATES? DOES IT PULL FROM THE INTERNET, OTHER BUILT ENVIRONMENTS, OR EVEN FROM WITHIN ITS OWN WALLS? DOES IT COLLECT DATA FROM A MEANINGFUL SOURCE? AND DOES IT INFORM, ENTERTAIN, ACKNOWLEDGE, OR INSPIRE YOUR OCCUPANTS? THE KEY IS TO PUSH TECHNOLOGY, AS HARMONIZED WITH ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, TO BE SOMETHING OF VALUE — TO EXIST FOR MORE THAN SIMPLY BECAUSE IT CAN EXIST, AND TO ENHANCE THE VERY OCCUPANT EXPERIENCE WHICH YOUR ENVIRONMENT HELPS TO SHAPE. MAKE TECHNOLOGY MORE THAN JUST AN “ADD-ON”. MAKE IT A MEANINGFUL AND VALUABLE QUALITY THAT IS FUSED INTO YOUR BUILDING.

‍Image Credit: © Stig Nygaard | Flickr