x.square

UPDATE:  We were voted off the island.  Look for the aperture wall at other venues interested in interactive installation art.

X.SCAPE made it past the jury as one of three finalists for the HIDA x.square competion!  Show your support by going to the ASU College of Design Gallery today to vote for your favorite collaborative shade space.

Rooted in principles of democratization of space and art, our proposal seeks to foster a collaborative working, social, and performance setting for students and local community members. To this end, the enclosed design embraces an interactive architectural model that is highly sensitive to user needs and demands, ultimately responding to participant movement within the designated environment. Moreover, the fluid interface of the structural design invites users to literally reshape the environment according to their respective requirements of the space.

The aforementioned interactive feature is the primary objective of the proposed design and is most readily accomplished through a steel canopy comprised of equilateral triangle aperture modules with programmable sensors that chart and react to user movement in the X-Square space. This interface provides for a myriad of structural evolutions as the apertures can be triggered to open and close ultimately engendering a unique opportunity for a user-defined structure,.

Additionally significant is the design’s potential to serve as a prospect for choreographed performances and a macro extension to one’s physicality and movement. These performances will be an integral part of the ASU School of Dance’s curriculum this upcoming year as collaborative student workshops will regularly be open to the public and conducted in the X-Square space. To further highlight the canopy’s interactive elements, an elaborate series of elevated platforms will be constructed under the canopy to serve in part as a postmodern, al fresco theatre comprised of a centered stage and contiguous seating for audience member and passerby alike.

In addition to the proposed design’s concern with interaction and user-triggered architectural evolution, the model’s blueprint also includes solar-powered energy sources in the canopy to account for a more pragmatic working space with charging capabilities for studying students and community members. It is therefore our target to engage and entertain the passerby, foster a forum for dialogue and civic participation between users, and provide a suitable environment for both work and recreation.

It is this very merging of objectives that characterized the interactive installations in our research analyses, namely that of Berlin’s Chaos Computer Club Project BlikenLights, Xenakis and LeCorbusier’s Philips Pavilion at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, and the Moment Factory’s illuminated walls in Montreal, Canada. It is our intention to bring a similar model to the X-Square that will absorb and enlighten the community and allow for continued growth and experience in a highly collaborative and dynamic space.