MIT digital water pavilion makes a splash in Spain
An
MIT-designed building with walls made entirely of water was unveiled
last Thursday at the opening of the Zaragoza World Expo in Spain. The
Digital Water Pavilion, selected as Time magazine's 'Best invention of
the Year' in the field of architecture when its plans were unveiled in
2007, is the first of its kind and illustrates the potential of digital
architecture to create spaces that dynamically adjust to people and
conditions.
An interactive structure that can be programmed to take on varying
shapes and to display patterns and images, the building is located at
the entrance to the Expo and will contain an exhibition area, an
information point and various public spaces.
'The design for the water pavilion grew out of a central challenge:
How to make fluid, reconfigurable architecture?' said Carlo Ratti, head
of MIT's SENSEable City Laboratory. 'Our building aims to stand as a
possible answer to this endeavor.'
'Water has long been recognized as one of the most dynamic and
engaging elements of urban public space,' commented William J.
Mitchell, head of MIT's Design Laboratory and former dean of
architecture at MIT. 'For centuries, architects have shaped and
directed it by means of channels and pipes, nozzles, valves, and pumps.'
'The technology of digital water walls, and its pioneering
application in Zaragoza's Digital Water Pavilion, update this tradition
for the digital era. Going forward, new combinations of sensor
technology, embedded intelligence, networking, computer-controlled
pumps and valves and other new technologies open up the exciting
possibility of urban-scale, precisely controlled, highly interactive
water.'
The 'water walls' that make up the structure are generated by
high-speed computer controlled solenoid valves. They can be programmed
to take varying shapes, to display patterns, images and text, and to
respond dynamically to input from sensors.
'This capability enables architects to challenge many traditional
ideas about architectural form,' says Mitchell. 'Doors, for example,
need not have fixed locations. When you walk up to them, water walls
can open like the Red Sea for Moses, and then seamlessly close behind
you.'
Ratti likens the concept of digital water to a large scale inkjet
printer: 'The opening and closing of valves, at high frequency,
produces a curtain of falling water -- a pattern of pixels created from
air and water instead of illuminated points on a screen. The entire
surface becomes a one-bit deep digital display that continuously
scrolls downward.'
All of the walls of the pavilion are made of digital water, along
with vertical partitions on the edge of the roof and inside it. The
only solid element of the pavilion is the roof -- a high-tech, 400 mm
thick moveable structure covered by water, engineered by Arup and built
by Siemens. The roof rests on moveable pistons and moves up and down
depending on wind conditions. It can also be flattened into the ground,
at which point the building disappears altogether.
The building contains 3,000 digitally controlled solenoid valves,
several dozen pumps, 12 hydraulic stainless steel piston and a digital
control system based on open source software. The water used is fully
recycled; some of it is lost because of evaporation, but it is
supplemented by rainfall at the pavilion's site.
The Digital Water Pavilion is the latest in a long line of new and
innovative architecture to be unveiled at world expos, from the London
Crystal Palace (1851) to the Eiffel Tower (1889) to the Mies van der
Rohe-designed Barcelona Pavilion (1929). The theme of the Zaragoza Expo
is water and sustainable development, and the fair is part of the
city's broader effort to reinvent itself as a 21st century hub of
knowledge, innovation and creativity.
'The Digital Water Pavilion illustrates how buildings of the future
may change their appearance and form from moment to moment, based on
necessity and use,' says Ratti. 'It is not easy to achieve such effects
when dealing with concrete, bricks and mortar. But this becomes
possible with digital water, which can appear and disappear.'
'In the nineties, digital technology led us to fantasize about
distant virtual worlds. Today we have moved on: The future of
architecture might deal with digitally augmented environments, where
bits and atoms seamlessly merge.'
The design and execution of the Digital Water Wall project was a
multidisciplinary collaboration between MIT, industry, and the city of
Zaragoza. The concept of the digital water wall was initially developed
and prototyped in the Smart Cities group at the MIT Media Lab, headed
up by Mitchell. Its application in Zaragoza was explored in an MIT
design studio under the direction of Dennis Frenchman, Mitchell and
Ratti. The building itself was designed by Ratti's firm
carlorattiassociati - walter nicolino & carlo ratti (Turin, Italy),
the engineering company Arup (London, UK and Madrid, Spain), and
landscape architects Agence Ter (Paris, France).
Contact information | n/a |
---|---|
News type | Inbrief |
File link |
http://www.environmental-expert.com/resulteachpressrelease.aspx?cid=26623&codi=33005&loginemail=jauad.el-kharraz@semide.org&logincode=151743 |
Source of information | MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Subject(s) | INDUSTRY , INFORMATION - COMPUTER SCIENCES , INFRASTRUCTURES , MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION |
Geographical coverage | Spain |
News date | 19/06/2008 |
Working language(s) | ENGLISH |