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Thermochromic Topologies

Institut - Spielwiese Technikerstraße 21, 3.OG Nord, Innsbruck, Austria

Thermochromic Topologies Integration of non-visual design parameters into generative design processes and the communication of invisible parameters of thermal comfort via embedded material performance in responsive architectural elements. With increasing awareness of our environmental responsibilities, architects must seek out alternative solutions to mechanical heating and cooling where possible. The resulting shift in paradigm - from a demand of a homogeneously tempered indoor environment to a heterogeneous field of varying comfort zones – requires new design tools to actively communicate qualities of space. Most thermal comfort parameters are invisible and hard to communicate across distances. This research aims to find solutions for this dilemma while exploring it from the architect’s position. Sustainability, passive environmental strategies and ecological thinking are embraced creatively and innovatively. This pushes the boundaries of design thinking as well as finding new digital fabrication and design methodologies to generate intricate and sustainable ornament. Thermochromic materials change colour when the material’s temperature exceeds a certain threshold. The effect can be a change in hue, saturation or transparency. The project focused on a change of transparency, where the disappearance of a coating layer reveals the underlying material above a temperature threshold of 27C – the same temperature above which a […]

Chromogenic Composites

Institut Technikerstraße 21, Innsbruck, Austria

Chromogenic Composites Exhibition of student work 18.-23. March 2022, Department for Experimental Architecture - Hochbau, Studio Prof. Marjan Colletti   In this seminar, students explored the relationships between digital environmental simulations, digital fabrication, and material properties. The focus lay on the interplay between colour, form, and climate. The objective of the course was to develop a design and fabrication method that links, programs, synchronises and orchestrates those relationships. The results are interactive chromogenic composites that act as interfaces between the built and the natural environment. In diesem Seminar erforschten die Studierenden die Beziehungen zwischen digitalen Umweltsimulationen, digitaler Fertigung und Materialeigenschaften. Der Schwerpunkt lag dabei auf dem Zusammenspiel von Farbe, Form und Klima. Ziel des Kurses war es, eine Design- und Fertigungsmethode zu entwickeln, die diese Beziehungen verknüpft, programmiert, synchronisiert und orchestriert. Das Ergebnis sind interaktive chromogene Komposite, die als Schnittstellen zwischen der gebauten und der natürlichen Umwelt fungieren. Course: 848181 - Seminar New Technologies (LFU) Teaching: Andreas Körner    

Variegated Poché

Institut - Spielwiese Technikerstraße 21, 3.OG Nord, Innsbruck, Austria

PhD Defence / Rigorosum Andreas Körner, BSc MArch   Variegated Poché Exploring thermochromic materials as surrogate models for the design integration of surface weathering in architecture.   Abstract: Current environmental and ecological pressures lead architects to reconsider the relationships between the inside and the outside, the permanence of surfaces, and the ageing of buildings. Integrating weathering through design and contextualising it in architectural theory are key components of this paradigm shift. This doctoral dissertation explores thermochromic materials as surrogate models for weathering as a design tool. Thermochromics change colour due to temperature. The research projects investigate the textural relationship between surfaces, substrates, and environments. The study employs a mixed-methods approach. First, a comprehensive literature review surveys the contemporary and historical concepts of weather, colour, texture, and poché. The correlation between the 19th-century debate on architectural polychromy and anthropogenic pollution acts as a historical case study for today’s relationship between ornament and climate change. Subsequently, the method of thermochromic programming is developed via five design research projects. Consequently, aesthetic chromogenic correlations between natural, long-term weathering and reversible, short-term thermochromic materials are outlined. The findings demonstrate that thermochromic programming can act as a surrogate model to explore design aspects of augmented weathering […]