Nano Micro Macro 2016: Selected Student Projects

Professor: Martin Bechthold (GSD), Joanna Aizenberg (SEAS)

Teaching Fellow: Sarah Norman


Project Name: Tune Your Space

Group: Eliza Pertigkiozoglou, Max Vanatta

The project explores the application of auxetic structures in a transformable acoustic panel, which adapts to different acoustic requirements of multipurpose spaces. After multiple experiments with such dynamic structures, a planar square grid that transforms in three dimensions (2.5D) was proposed. In the open state, the acoustic panel is absorptive and diffusive, while in the close state, it is totally reflective. The remarkable property of this system is that it transforms in a way that the boundary of the overall geometry remains constant while the depth and porosity adapt.


Project Name: Adaptive Mesh

Group: Pablo Escudero, Vivian Hanwei Li, Catty Dan Zhang

 


Project Name: Luminicent

Group: Nathan Peters, Nic Hogan, Louis J Kang

While many arthropod species demonstrate robust, lasting fluorescence under ultraviolet light, synthetic fluorescence is notoriously unstable. This structure is composed of a material that combines chitosan, a material derived from the chitin found in arthropod exoskeletons, with a fluorescent polymer found in scorpion shells. The result is a structure that emits lasting fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light.


Project Name: Passive Kinetic Metals

Group: Diana Yan

This project explores the inherent properties of common metals to use in the utility of a passive kinetic architectural facade that reacts to its environment without use of electricity or sensors. The building becomes dynamic, looking different day and night, summer and winter, and year to year. The dialogue between the modules being heated and cooled down creates a sense of movement across the building, a mirror of it’s environment. With a system like this, skyscraper mullions can be re-imagined as an array of solar tracking, energy generating panels, that generate energy for the occupants inside.