INTELLIGENT SKINS FOR INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS: CREATING DESIGN INTUITION AND COMMUNICATING BUILDING PERFORMANCE INTENT THROUGH ANALYSIS OF CONTEXT, CLIMATE, AND CULTURE

摘要

This paper presents student design-based research for creating intelligent building skins. The emphasis was to communicate local climate conditions through site-specific architectural tectonics. The pedagogical process prioritized defining a visual syntax for describing where, how, what, and why the skin modifies climate. This syntax was used to illuminate how physical context influences climate, and as it affects cultural understandings of comfort. Design processes took the following steps: technical and theoretical readings, analysis of in situ intelligent skins, climate analysis, development of design methodology, and application of design methodology. The design studio was used to explore the dynamic qualities of an intelligent skin, how that dynamism can be captured in graphic form, and how the resulting architecture can be used to communicate the conditions of inside and outside through the medium of the intelligent skin. The research has been applied to the design studio process, at a variety of project scales.