Shutters: a permeable surface for environmental control and communication

Surfaces capable of modulating permeability have long been used in architecture for environmental control, but have remained largely unexplored as information displays. The advent of new shape changing materials and construction techniques promises to change this. In this paper, we describe Shutters: a curtain composed of actuated louvers that can be individually addressed for precise control of ventilation, daylight incidence and information display. We discuss related work, the underlying design principles behind Shutters, engineering details and application scenarios in architecture and fashion. We conclude with a comparative visual study for the use of permeability in kinetic and shadow displays and provide directions for future work.