, interactive installation, interactive architecture, cybernetics, responsive architecture, interactive art, digital fabrication, responsive art, responsive installation, living architecture, installation art, soft architecture, kinetic art, kinetic installation, responsive environments, interacitve environments, cyber-physical

Anthozoan Veil: De Electriciteitsfabriek

Electrical Factory

The Hague, NL  2019

In 2018, the Technical University of Delft and the Living Architecture Systems Group launched the Responsive Matter and Living Architecture residency which resulted in a weeklong workshop, supported by five LASG research associates, to develop a large-scale interactive sculpture, Anthozoan Veil. The workshop was preceded by an initial period of material production which allowed Hyperbody students to explore topologies and emerging fabrication methods used to create lightweight meshwork and plate components. The workshop included configuration of electronic controls and specialized software supporting distributed arrays of multiple kinds of active components. The Anthozoan Veil prototype included LED lighting, IR sensors, shape-memory alloy and servo actuators. New software developed during the workshop included Processing-based visualizations. 

The result of the workshop was a small pavilion organized as a lightweight expanded space truss, integrating spread-foot lightweight posts and finials and extended by clouds of spiral-shaped interlinking skeletal membranes. Visitors passed within arrays of grouped struts arranged as capitals that branched out from each post. Responsive fronds fitted within voids between the branching struts curled in coordinated cupola-like contractions in response to the gestures of viewers.

De Electriciteitsfabriek, TodaysArt Fest 2019

Project Leads

  • Teun Verkerk
  • The University of Waterloo International Research Partnership Grant Program