What if the everyday structures we inhabit and interact with could respond to their surroundings? Buildings could change shape to counteract changes in the weather, rooms could expand or contract based on the volume of occupancy, and the furniture could shift shapes to yield an entirely new design or function? Sure, you won’t find objects like these in your local IKEA any time soon—we’re not quite there yet, but new materials are being developed in research facilities the world over with exactly such improbable and impossible purposes in mind. One such material is electroactive polymers, which are capable of changing size and shape when stimulated by an electric field. Scientists have been experimenting with these polymers since the late 19th century, but despite major advancements since the days of early experiments involving a rubber band, the field is still regarded as being far from mature.
One promising application of the technology on an architectural scale, however, is the ShapeShift, a project produced in collaboration between the chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ETHZ) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA). The group recently presented an exhibition of their research at Starkart in Zürich, where it created quite a stir. While the project is still in its infancy and has a long way to go—the material is still quite fragile, not to mention difficult and expensive to produce—it is an exciting proof of concept of the great potential this new technology affords.
Videos by VICE
Watch the video below for a demo of ShapeShift in action and check out the slideshow about for more images from the installation.
Visit We Make Money Not Art to read an interview with one of the lead researchers from ShapeShift.
Images courtesy of ShapeShift
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