Buildings with minds of their own
What if architects could build living systems rather than static buildings-dynamic structures that modify their internal and external forms in response to changes in their environment? This provocative idea is making waves in the field of architecture. Houses, for example, might shrink in the winter to reduce surface area and volume, thus cutting heating costs. They could cover themselves to escape the heat of the summer sun or shake snow off the roof in winter. Skyscrapers could alter their aerodynamic profiles, swaying slightly to distribute increased loads during hurricanes. Office buildings could reconfigure themselves to improve ventilation.
Such "responsive architecture" would depend on two sorts of technology: control systems capable of deciding what to do, and structural components able to change the building’s shape as required. Architects have been working to improve the control systems in buildings for many years, but shape shifting technology is at a much earlier stage of development.
One approach being pursued by researchers is to imitate nature. Many natural constructions, including spiders’ webs and cell membranes, are "tensegrity systems"-robust structures made up of many interconnected elements which can be manipulated to change shape without losing their structural integrity. "These structures can bend and twist, but no element in the structure bends and twists," says Robert Skelton of the Structural Systems and Control Laboratory at the University of California in San Diego. "It’s the architecture of life."
While Dr Skelton is working on solving the engineering equations associated with tensegrity systems, Tristan d’Estrée Sterk at the Office for Robotic Architectural Media & the Bureau for Responsive Architecture, an architectural practice based in Vancouver, Canada, has begun to construct prototypes of shapechanging "building envelopes" based on tensegrity structures. Lightweight skeletal frameworks, composed of rods and wires and controlled by pneumatic "muscles", serve as the walls of a building; adjusting their configuration changes the building’s shape. Mr Sterk is also developing the "brain" needed to control such a building based on information from internal and external sensors.
Cars are already capable of monitoring their own performance and acting with a certain degree of autonomy, from cruisecontrol systems to airbag sensors. Such responsive behaviour is considered normal for a car; architects argue that the same sort of ideas should be incorporated into buildings, too.
And just as the performance of a car can be simulated in advance to choose the best design for a range of driving conditions, the same should be done for buildings, argues Gian Carlo Magnoli, an architect and the codirector of the Kinetic Design Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is devising blueprints for responsive houses. "We need to evolve designs for the best performing responsivebuilding models," he says.
So will we end up with cities of skyscrapers that wave in the breeze? It sounds crazy. But, says Mr Sterk, many ideas that were once considered crazy are now commonplace. "Electricity was a batty idea, but now it’s universal," he says. The same was true of suspension bridges and elevators. Dynamic, intelligent, adaptable buildings are "the logical next step", he claims.
Static(al）
a.静态的，静力的
component
n.①组成部分；②成分；③部件；a.组成的，合成的
［真题例句］ Of all the components (n.①) of a good nights sleep, dreams seem to be least within our control.［2005年阅读3］
［例句精译］ 在晚上睡一个好觉的组成要素中，梦是我们最无法控制的因素。
robust
a.精力充沛的
manipulate
v.①操作，控制；②应付，处理
［真题例句］ As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, "A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process...The designer and the inventor... are able to assemble and manipulate (①) in their minds devices that as yet do not exist."［1996年阅读4］
［例句精译］ 正如尤金?弗格森曾指出的："技术人员思考那些不能被简化成用明确的语言进行描述的物体；这些物体在他的头脑中以视觉性的、非语言性的方式被处理加工......设计者和发明者......能把那些尚不存在的机械在头脑中组装和操作。" |
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