Thursday, December 17, 2009

DesCours 2009


FADarch is pleased to have been part of this year’s annual DesCours (http://www.descours.us/) event in New Orleans. Francis Bitonti (FADarch) and Brian Osborn (bo-th.com) collaborated to construct a 500sqft robotic canopy titled “openHouse prototype two”

Concept:
openHouse is an illuminated canopy filling the upper portion of a small courtyard. As participants fill the courtyard the space is transformed by a field of kinetic devices. Our objective is to create a fluid public condition which is programmed by habitation and social interaction. Participants control the architecture through the seating. The ceiling is created from a grid of robotic components. The components randomly contract and expand while at rest. When the space is empty only one turns on at a time. As people begin to occupy the seating under the canopy, more components begin flickering on and off. Two people will cause three units to randomly dance around three people will activate four and four people will activate 5 etc…

opening night video


Video of openHouse during construction