Sometimes it might be hard for occupants to really visualize their actions as they execute them. While not all actions need to be visualized, there are some interactions that could very well help occupants if they could better understand them as they occur. So, what in built environments could provide occupants with such insight, so as to give them real-time feedback on the key actions which they take? Could visualizations like these help them to live healthier? Be more productive? Have more...

When we experience space by traveling through it, we interact with it affecting its acoustical behaviors in what can be unintentional ways — but what if an architectural design could make its occupants think more carefully about how they move through built space, where their movements yield more intentional acoustic behaviors? Instead of aural experience always being something that seems to happen in the background (from an occupant’s perceptual point of view), why not...

I think that as we progress into the future, new technologies should help us reconnect with nature in entirely new ways — rather than as a divide by which we further separate from it. For this reason, I find it quite interesting to have come across an interactive floor projection design which engages people to experience a texture from nature in motion. And that texture closely resembles the rippling effects of water. As people walk on the dry floor where this projection is,...

The Digital Water Pavilion in Zaragoza, Spain dismissed the notion of using glass for the boundaries which mark the “separation” between the interior and the exterior. To make it even more interesting, this pavilion drops a sheet of water around its perimeter in a curtain-like fashion, but when it senses the movement and approach of a body that wishes to enter — it uses sensors to stop releasing water so as to create a portal through which a person can gain entrance into the...

Sensory devices are being embedded in architecture to create interactive designs. Such ubiquitous computing arrangements will eventually propagate through our homes, offices and other building types. What remains fascinating is the advent when such architectural spaces will use technology to learn from its own experience. Already, robots are being designed to do just that. Let me explain…

In a Scientific American article entitled Can Robots Be Programmed to Learn...

In the magazine Inc., an article by David H. Freedman describes a new neural device that can “read” thought so that users can control video games, computer technologies and “what’s around the house” with their mind. This neural device sits on your head, like a headset, and deciphers brain signals that allow users to open doors or play happy music when feeling blue. Such a device is set to revolutionize interface design on many levels.

The article, entitled...

What if certain aspects of architectural design could be personalized for occupants? Such interactive architecture could reach out to people in different ways so environment would heighten experience for each individual user.

Personalizing certain aspects of architectural experience would make architectural design more intuitive for occupants. To make this work, architectural sensors could receive occupant information from everyday objects used by the occupant. In turn, architecture would...

Schools need more than just flex space. Converting space from one use to another is good, but designers must pay particular attention to how each space influences students as they engage in different learning activities and methods. Did you know that classrooms today must provide a great variety of functions? The following is a quick list of just a few of the main functions classrooms today provide: 

• quiet reading
• internet
• video
• multi-media
• shared computer applications
• personal computer...

This design by Perkins + Will in Holland, Michigan said that they needed an “environment that would change their culture”, according to Architectural Record’s report. This brings up an interesting point. How can interactive architecture help with a corporation’s cultural evolution?

The culture of a place has to do with how its occupants interrelate with each other, with their clients and with their daily work. As corporations grow their cultures evolve – as do...

The emergence of big data is bringing with it some very interesting insights into how we can better understand the world around us, and the way we live within its fluctuations. Of course, analyzing this without a plan could be overwhelming and complex, but with data visualization and analysis techniques you can begin to get unique insights into how to make positive changes for better living. For instance, did you know that you can begin to use collected data to help improve the way you...