Adaptive Fritting as Case Exploration for Adaptivity in Architecture

This paper explores the incentive, design process, and realization of an adaptable building system. Hoberman Associates’ installation at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Adaptive Fritting, is used as a case study for the more general thesis of mechanism design in architecture. Traditionally seen as expensive and impractical, ‘movement’ in buildings can be accessible if done with high economy and simple elegance. The goal of this example is to illustrate the design process, challenges, constraints and parameters required to realize an adaptable architectural system. 1 pREMIsE fOR ADApTIvITy The notion of a building that can move or reconfigure itself is not a novel concept. The premise of modularity and dynamic control in combination with unique mechanisms has permeated architectural practice at many points and through a diverse range of projects. Often, the large scale and custom nature of these systems with consideration given to structure, mechanism and control results in a cost that can only be justified by a projects high profile (Milwaukee Art Museum, Santiago Calatrava) or commercial benefit (Cardinals stadium roof and field example, by Peter Eisenman and HOK Sport). The built environment is inevitably adaptive. Environmental forces beyond gravity and pressure are constantly causing building materials to deflect, expand, contract, rupture, and deform all around us. Standard design guides us to limit movement in favor of stability. However, if stability can be maintained while incorporating movement new design opportunities are suddenly possible. New material systems in architecture have always produced new design opportunities. For example, reinforced concrete was born through combining a metal lattice with liquid concrete. This new material system supported many of the amazing structures we see today. Adaptive Fritting is a first embodiment of a newfound “material system” that allows the designer micro-control of the user experience. 2 DEvELOpMENT Of ADApTIvE fRITTING pROTOTypE Inherent to the development of Adaptive Fritting was the desire to take an established architectural treatment and imbue it with expanded functionality. The benefit of such development would be twofold: providing architects with a new design element that is already a familiar part of their vocabulary and a performance increase that expands upon the current appeal of using fritted glass (namely, as a means of easily customizing shading while preserving transparency where desired). 2.1 INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS AND BEHAVIORAL INTENT The benefits of a fritted surface in reducing incident sunlight come from a combination of the surface treatment and the density of that treatment. In setting out to achieve a purely mechanical transformation, focus was limited to the modulation of density for initial investigations. In order to preserve the current aesthetic of fritting it was important to create an object that was relatively thin. The primary challenge then was in determining what type of motion could be applied to a standard fritted pane in order to achieve the desired density modulation without drifting too far a field of current fritting implementations. Once a desired