Research Through Making II

The Stratus Project develops a kinetic interior envelope, seemingly alive with sensors and intelligence, set into motion based on sensory input to affect the atmosphere that it surrounds, and in continual information exchange and dialogue with breather and environment. The fully realized system will develop a series of immersive layers, from a sensing, breathing and energy scavenging ground plane to a deep enveloping soffit, considering the material design of both that which is sensed – surfaces, atmospheres, thermal gradients and light – and that which lies beyond our sensory capabilities – aerosols, energies, transmission and radiation waves.

The first prototype is comprised of a thickly arrayed suspended textile consisting of a tensegrity-based structural weave, diffusing membranes and breathing cells. Physical presence of the breather, as well as environmental conditions such as temperature, light, carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants, are measured through a distributed network of sensors that communicate with actuators to trigger fans supplying or extracting air, and lights illuminating the occupied space.