NSA Muscle
Trans-ports pavilion concept dates back from 1999
The most important feature of the programmable Trans-ports pavilion, which was developed by ONL for a presentation at the first Archilab Conference in Orléans, is that architecture for the first time in history is no longer doomed to remain static after a dynamic design process. This notion formed the basis for a true paradigm shift in architecture at the millennium shift. Due to the programmability of both form and information content the construct becomes a lean and flexible vehicle for a variety of usage. Buildings become instruments, architecture a game designers play with their clients and the users of the built construct.
Muscle at Non Standard Architecture show in Centre Pompidou
For the exhibition Non-Standard Architecture ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] [ONL] and the Hyperbody Research Group [HRG] at the TU Delft directed by Prof Kas Oosterhuis realized a working prototype of the Trans-ports project, called the MUSCLE. Programmable buildings can reconfigure themselves mentally and physically, probably without considering to completely displace themselves like the Walking City as proposed by Archigram in 1964. Programmable buildings change shape by contracting and relaxing industrial muscles. The MUSCLE programmable building is a pressurized soft volume wrapped in a mesh of tensile muscles, which change length, height and width by varying the pressure pumped into the muscle. Visitors of the Architectures Non Standard exhibition play a collective game to explore the different states of the MUSCLE. The public interacts with the MUSCLE by entering the inter-activated sensorial space surrounding the prototype. This invisible component of the installation is implemented as a sensor field created by a collection of sensors. The sensors create a set of distinct shapes in space that, although invisible to the human eye, can be monitored and can yield information to the building body. The body senses the activities of the people and interacts with the players in a multimodal way. The public discovers within minutes how the MUSCLE behaves on their actions, and soon after they start finding a goal in the play. The outcome of this interaction however is unpredictable, since the MUSCLE is programmed to have a will of its own. It is pro-active rather then responsive and obedient. The programmable body is played by its users. A constant play of conjointly effectuating (re)actions, of attraction and repulsion between all players involved. This game truly is a multi-player game. Now true communication is established, where the pro-active parties involved alternately sense, process, and actuate in this constant loop of mutual influence. The players experience this parametric game of architecture as a form of serious fun. The design is the formula, the playing of the game means setting the parameters.
For the behavioural system this means that the produced sensorial data is analyzed in real-time and acts as the parameters for pre-programmed algorithms and user-driven interferences in the defined scripts. These author-defined behavioural operations are instantly computed, resulting in a diversity of e-motive behaviours that are experienced as changes in the physical shape of the active structure and the generation of an active immersive soundscape. The MUSCLE really is an interactive input-output device, a play station augmenting itself through time.
E-motional filters to specify the mood and the modes of NSA Muscle. The MUSCLE is programmed to respond to human visitors through its sensing, processing and actuating enhancements. To communicate with the players, the MUSCLE has to transduce physical quantities into digital signals (sensors) and vice versa (actuators). The public connects to the MUSCLE by sensors attached to reference points on the structure. These input devices convert the behaviour of the human players into data that acts as the parameters for changes in the physical shape of the active structure and the ambient soundscape. The input setup consists of eight sensor plates with three sensors each: motion (for sensing the presence of possible players from a distance of 6 meters), proximity (for sensing the distance of the players to the MUSCLE within a distance of 2 meters) and touch (for sensing the amount of pressure applied upon the surface). The analogue sensor input channels are converted to digital audio signals (MIDI) and transferred to the computer. The 24 sensor impulses, interpreted, processed and weighted by several scripts containing multiple levels of behavioural algorithms, affect the system in a variety of ways. Depending on the active emotional mode the sensor parameters set the actions of the individual muscles. These muscle outputs can be quite diverse between the behavioural modes. Apart from this direct link, a more subtle level is present, being that of input signals also affecting the behavioural state itself. The amount of player/object interactivity is a variable for the complex set of e-motional filters that specify the moods.
NSA Muscle is a pro-active body. The sensorial space surrounding the installation is the interface of the data-driven prototype. The combination of the used sensors gives a smooth gradient of player/object connectivity. Stepping into the invisible playing field one gets detected by the wide ranging beams of motion sensors and through lowres global spatial re-configurations and sound effects ones attention is drawn. Getting curious one wonders what it is this alien body wants from you. While approaching one triggers the proximity beam, a stream of numbers reports exactly how far into the shape one is extending. Local and global skin gestures are displayed and the player indulges with the vehicle. A soundscape arises out of the activities; it feels as if the body itself makes the sounds, as if it is an organism at work. The extended interaction eventually leads to the most intimate action, the physical contact. The touch sensors register the pressure applied and this sensed data results in personalized and player-intended local surface deformation and local sound actions. These surface deformations are the result of the contraction/relaxation of the touch-zone’s neighbouring muscles. When sensors are connected to actuators in a system, then that system is said to be intelligent, i.e. it displays responsive behaviour. But responsiveness is not the goal, since essentially this is just responding to incoming requests. The ultimate goal is pro-activity, meaning that it senses and actuates because some internal force is driving it.
Designers must think and act as programmers. For designing real time constructs it is extremely important that the designer runs and works in the process and not just passively talks about it. Designers must think as a programmers writing code. In the MUSCLE project the design is the code, the designers are the programmers. The programming decisions are the design decisions and visa versa. ONL makes use of game development software since it enables us to quickly and easily create rich, interactive 3D environments operating in real time. It allows any behaviour to react constantly and consistently to its environment, including the user/player. By playing all parties involved (the visitors, the MUSCLE body and the designers) can adjust everything including the code while running the game! This computational design tool allows the user/player to define and completely control the behavioural rules. The MUSCLE is programmed to behave within predefined emotional bandwidths of emotional modes. And within these modes the MUSCLE is free to act and to develop a personal mood. This experienced emotional state of the MUSCLE is the outcome of the e-motive scripts [based on rules, operations and formulas with a multitude of variables] running in real time. Sets of e-motional filters analyse both the incoming sensorial data as well as the inherent data (= the systems output). Being processed and weighted the associated parameters, rules, formulas and arrays are updated, resulting in a different output. The behaviour is at any time a merging of selected global presets and local user interferences, expressed as:
Volumetric alterations of the external form, by changing the length (varying the pressure pumped into them) of the tensile muscles. To control the behavioural response of the body a balanced pressure-tension combination is applied. Muscles that combined lead to a desired effect [such as skew, taper, bend, twist, shake] are placed into groups, allowing them to contract all at the same time. A series of muscles - the actuators - put together actuate the complex programmable structure in real time. So activation of certain sensors may lead to the bending of to MUSCLE body, while other activations may cause a heavily shaking and vibrating effect. These presets are selected depending on the active mood and related parameters. Presets are not fixed entities; on the contrary, they consist of many parameters [such as frequency, duration, interval, weight]. Combinations and repetitions of these global presets lead to unexpected, surprising and exciting results. This combined with the local user interferences makes the behaviour of the MUSCLE totally unpredictable.
The emission of combined pre-designed sounds and at runtime generated wave samples. The sound environment receives its data directly from the sensor channels and indirectly from the spatial nodal configuration and the MUSCLE’s behavioural state. Pre-defined and pre-designed sound samples are activated and combined with 36 dynamically created nodal wave samples. The sound properties and samples change on the fly based on the presence of associated sets of variables. This information is combined and passed through a controlling musical behavioural algorithm that generates the ambient soundscape. Physical spatial activities and combinations of sensor activations alter the associated sound parameters directly, resulting in a sophisticated sensual experience. Various base levels build a complex totality (effectuating powers). In combination with the ‘breathing sounds’ of the inflating and deflating muscles an orchestra of ambient sounds fills the space. One really feels the shape of the invisible space. Sound-space and physical-space become one.
A real time graphical display of the computational process. A three dimensional visualization of the MUSCLE rendered on a flatscreen informs the public about the nature of this being. This model is the computational process itself. From this model the state of each muscle is determined. The activity of the muscles is displayed in three colors in the model: red / inflating state, blue / deflating state, and gray / passive state, and in the internally used organizational 72 digit string. Also represented in the model are the eight sensor plates changing scale and opacity on activity and the overall behavioural state of the MUSCLE, visualized as a gradual color changing background. Images of practical architectural applications, using muscle technology, complement the graphical display. The real time model is actively viewed from multiple camera positions as to really feel the behavioural patterns at work. Viewed in combination with the actual physical model this graphical interface contributes to the public’s level of understanding.
Text NSA Muscle by Kas Oosterhuis
Project: NSA Muscle
Realisation: December 2003
Site : Centre Pompidou Paris, Non Standard Architectures exhibition
Design: ONL [Oosterhuis_ Lénárd], Rotterdam
Design team: Kas Oosterhuis, Ilona Lénárd, Bert Bongers, Sven Blokker, Chris Kievid, Remko Siemerink, Laura Aguili
Engineering: ONL, Festo, D3BN, Buitink, Bontron
Client : Mnam-Cci Centre Pompidou Paris
Website : www.oosterhuis.nl
Muscle ReConfigured
Internal spatial response. The Muscle ReConfigured, is an architectural research undertaken by the Hyperbody Research Group, which is specifically aimed at materializing a real time responsive variant of the afore-mentioned MUSCLE project by ONL. The reconfiguration is realized by means of utilizing the same actuating components: pneumatic Festo muscles from the MUSCLE project exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. However for the new installation, instead of the soft volumetric alterations of the external form (as was materialized through the MUSCLE project), an approach emphasizing internal spatial response is visualized. The soft inflatable skin of the MUSCLE project, experiences a complete reversal of material aesthetic owing to the usage of Hylite panels for constructing the spatial envelope (the Strip). The notion of utilizing the shear compression power of the pneumatic muscles, to bend and warp the hard edged Hylite strip into soft, luxuriant and meaningful variations is successfully accomplished by the Muscle ReConfigured installation.
The Strip is visualized as a three dimensional section in space, which is completely programmed to respond to human occupants through its sensing, processing and actuating enhancements. The notion of transforming everyday utilitarian space into a living organism, which augments itself through time to cater to its inhabitants, places the user in the foreground hence completely reversing the conventional ICT based scenario where the user has to adapt to the IT enhanced object. The installation hence is conceived as an experiment in inculcating ambient intelligence with a human centric computing component engrained within.
Muscle Reconfigured is a network of nodes. Ubiquitous computing is seen as the back bone of such a construct. The installation is seen as a network of nodes which are linked in space in a highly interdependent manner, constantly exchanging information and behaving as a collective whole to attain spatial reconfigurations. This dense network of nodes essentially constitutes of external and internal node typologies. The external predominantly dealing with sets of sensors and actuators and the internal dealing with computation and data processing elements. A rather precise, rule based control algorithm binds these two node components together to produce the desired data exchange and data output scenarios. In addition to such computation based features, an attempt is also made to simplify the human computer interface (HCI) with additional features such as a manual control induction in order to enhance psychological comfort of the occupants of the Strip.
Spatial components and performance. The installation is visualized as a bottom up design research endeavour, with the Hylite panels forming the generic building block of the construct. The spatial section is seen as a completely wired prototype of a larger ecology of relaxation spaces, which can be plugged in together to create an intelligent space. The strip is broken up into three distinct typologies:
1 Relaxing furniture units [relaxation chairs and table]
2 Responsive ceiling units
3 Responsive wall units
Relaxing furniture units. The furniture units are viewed as a hybrid entity, constituting of two sheets of Hylite fixed together (as the seating surface) which are supported underneath by rows of wedge shaped Styrofoam blocks, with two wooden sections on either end of the unit. This hybridization is aimed at increasing the strength of the Hylite sheets in order to allow people to sit/lie down on the furniture entities. The variable curvature of the units is a result of the compressive force, which is generated by the fluidic muscles, fixed at either ends to the wooden sections of the unit. The muscles in turn are actuated when they receive the appropriate signal from the data processing units (the internal nodes). This actuation works at two stages by means of two sets of sensing devices: firstly, the data, concerning with the proximity of people near the units. This sensed data, captured as analogue signals, is transmitted through the MIDI interface (where it is converted to digital signals) into the CPU. There the data is processed in Virtools to return actuation commands which are routed through the serial port to the Black Box which controls the Muscle contractions. This first stage creates an initial curvature in the furniture surfaces, enough to allow people to sit on it.
The second stage involves a much more direct interaction of the people sitting on the furniture surface. The surface has two touch sensors attached to it, which trigger the adjustments in height and curvature of the furniture units. The data communication, this time concerning the amount of pressure exerted on the touch sensors, follows the same sequence as mentioned for the first stage and hence materializes in appropriate curvature variations in accordance with the choice of the user. The actuations are not only limited to the furniture units but also extend to the enveloping surfaces: the walls and the ceiling units in immediate vicinity of the seated occupant.
The responsive ceiling units. The ceiling is materialized as a network of connected Hylite panels controlled by fluid muscles. Their operation involves the creation of projection surfaces, generation of smooth curvilinear soothing forms for relaxation purposes and for materializing openings in ceiling surface for allowing light to venture through. These operations are visualized with one connecting property of the fluidic muscles: the compression forces which it can generate (which will in turn bend the panels) and the ease with which they can be linked together to create one long string of compression elements.
The responsive wall. The wall elements constitute of the same generic Hylite panels, which are woven together to create a continuous surface with the ceiling elements. The same principle of compression strengths goes into materializing the wall, which, when actuated, bends to create projection surfaces and seating surfaces. The actuation of the wall and ceiling elements are intrinsically linked up with the furniture element actuations, hence weaving the entire construct into a cumulative whole. However, there are also provisions in which, for experimental reasons, one can individually trigger these entities.
Each of the above mentioned entities are held together by a network of fluidic muscles in differing configurations to create desired effects from the overall construct.
Text muscle ReConfigured by Nimish Biloria, Phd researcher Hyperbody Research Group
Credits Muscle Reconfigured
Project director: Prof ir Kas Oosterhuis, principal ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] and director Hyperbody Research Group [HRG] at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture
Participants Bachelor 6 HRG: Chris Fox, Roi Harari, Jaroslav Hulin, Klaas-Jan de Koning, Johannes Krohne, Sebastian Lippok, Simsa Mc Nally, Antonio Pisano
Tutors: Nimish Biloria, Dieter Vandoren, ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd], Rotterdam
Partners: Festo [provider of automation solutions for the process-industry] supported HRG with advise on using the pneumatic muscles, Corus [metal manufacturer] for sponsorship of Hylite panels, TU Delft Faculty of Architecture has provided working space and facilities
Pictures: Klaas-Jan de Koning, Jaroslav Hulin, Dieter Vandoren
Website: www.protospace.bk.tudelft.nl
MUSCLE Tower I
A Prototype for Adaptive, Responsive and Pro-active Architecture. The Muscle Tower is a working prototype [model scale 1: 20] for a building structure that responds to stimuli from external [the weather] and internal [the users] conditions. The programmable building is seen as a Complex Adaptive System, which is a running process relating to other running processes [people, the environment] in real time. The MUSCLE Tower displays real time behaviour.
Possible practical applications for the Muslce Tower I
As a structure for an Adaptive Facade, adapting to changing external environmental conditions and changing internal usage.
As a Responsive Roof, responding to changes in solar radiation, it closes or opens in respons to more or less sunshine.
As a Pro-active Space, the structure of the building changes in real time as to activate changing usage of the space.
As a Balancing Skyscraper Structure, dynamically resisting to external forces making a skyscraper stand perfectly upright when enduring strong winds.
The Muscle Tower is displayed at the Aandrijftechniek exhibition (5/8-10-2004), being part of The Industrial Week [meeting venue for Dutch industry], taking place at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. This exhibition informs visitors about many of the latest innovations, developments and bright ideas in the world of Power Transmission, Factory Automation & Motion Control in the one brain-inspiring visit.
Project: Muscle Tower I
Realisation: 2004
Professor: Prof Kas Oosterhuis
Coordination: Hans Hubers
Tutors: Hans Hubers, Dieter Vandoren, Christian Friedrich, Sven Blokker, Misja van Veen
Engineering: ONL, Festo
MUSCLE Tower II
Muscular Advertisement Tower. The interactive and kinetic MUSCLE Tower II is a true Hyperbody. It reacts to its environment, and pro-actively determines the space around it. This advertisement tower, attracting attention through its elegant moves, could actually become the archetype for a new kind of construction in building bodies. The Muscle Tower II consists of aluminium tubes, connected flexibly to each other and the Festo Muscles by the nodes, which are made of iron hollow spheres. The Festo Muscles are controlled by a running program in VirTools, which is aware of its environment through movement sensors. In all ways the Muscle Tower II is an elaboration of the first prototype of the MUSCLE Tower I. The MUSCLE Tower II is an educational and research project for the Hyperbody Research Group and a good example of research by design. It was designed and build by BSc 6 students following the Hyperbody course. At the same time it is highly experimental, creating new insights on the possibilities of combining new technologies and meanings.
Project: Muscle Tower II
Realisation: 2004
Professor: Prof Kas Oosterhuis
Coordination: Hans Hubers
Tutors: Hans Hubers, Gerrie Hobbelman [Building Technology], Christian.Friedrich, Sven Blokker, Misja van Veen
Students: Jean Maurice Kuijpers, Sahar Momen, David van Pijkeren, Owen Slootweg, Rudin Swagerman, Nagihan Tuncer
Muscle Body
The Muscle Body transforms interior space and architectural body in real time. The project consists of a fully kinetic and interactive architecture that is a full-scale prototype of an interior space. The Muscle Body is an architectural body that consists of a continuous skin that incorporates all its architectural properties and makes no categorical distinctions such as floor, wall, ceiling, door. The interaction between the Muscle Body and its players (the people that have entered the interior space) causes the Muscle Body to change its shape, its degrees of transparency and the sound that it generates.
The structure of the Muscle Body is based on a single, spiralling tube that is bended in three dimensions. The material properties of the tube that is normally used as water piping allow for both the needed flexibility and stiffness of the structure. A total of 26 industrial Festo muscles are intergraded into the spiralling structure to control the physical movement of the Muscle Body. The skin is further composed of Lycra, a stretchable fabric normally used for sports clothing. The translucency of the fabric varies according to the degree of stretching. The fabric is fitted in segments that are slightly offset to the tubular structure. The combination of the thin strips of light that occur between the tubing and the skin, and the altering translucency of the fabric itself results in a play of light when the Muscle Body is activated. There are also a number of speakers integrated into the skin that generate sound consisting of several (sound)samples that are combined and transformed according to the behaviour of the players.
To activate the Muscle Body information is abstracted from the behaviour of its players in real-time by a number of pressure and proximity sensors that are imbedded in the skin. The game-software VirTools is used for organizing the real-time relations between the input received by the sensors and the output consisting of the behaviour of the muscles and the generated sound. By developing a real-time feedback loop between the interior space and its players the project aims to rethinks the relation between the human body and the architectural body, and positions these in a process of co-evolution.