Research | CU-iMSE



				Bio-logical Housing At the 2005 National Conference of The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, I introduced the concept, the 'bio-logic' of architecture, and asked: "What if works of architecture...behaved like plants and animals? What if designs for the human environment “adapted and flexed and evolved as living things do.” Soon after, a response - my masters of architecture "Rurban" studio - was selected by the American Institute of Architects as being among the few "best practices in sustainable design education." Presented across this website, the work of my Architectural Robotics Lab extends the bio-logical trajectory like ivy; below are a few of my early manifestations focused on housing. I wasn't certain than, and I'm still not certain now, where the paths lead. That makes this trip exciting and new for me everyday. It seems many in architecture have found a way on to some of these paths. But it's disappointing that too much of their work looks the same, looks (rather than behaves) too much like a plant or an animal, and fails to consider what a bio-logical architecture might do for and mean for people, places, and the planet. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The House of Ivy A Low-Cost, Sustainable House for Winston-Salem, North Carolina Keith Evan Green, Architect The House of Ivy is not a detached house but a generator within a living system formed by houses, inhabitants, the ground and the sky. Like ivy itself, the House of Ivy is actively growing, varying, adapting, renewing, photosynthesizing and economizing. Unlike the conventional "detached" house that fails to engage anything around it or inside it, The House of Ivy is rooted in the process, network, cycle and diversity of its situation. The House of Ivy cultivates a socioeconomic community: a dynamic and productive equilibrium of people, nature and artifice. The House of Ivy was a winner in the International HOMEhouse project Competition and was featured in an MIT Press catalog. Three-page overview of the House of Ivy. As presented in the MIT Press Catalog, The Home House Project. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bio-logical Housing A Housing Colony at the Urban-Rural Interface of Greenville, South Carolina Keith Evan Green, M.Arch. Thesis Supervisor of the "Rurban Studio" This thesis design-research studio of 10 Masters students focused upon creating a vital housing colony accommodating the living and working activities of a diverse group of inhabitants, located at the threshold between farmland and new development in Greenville, South Carolina. The colony was envisioned as a living system cultivating a larger network of live-work communities along the rapidly developing Atlanta-Charlotte corridor. This studio and two others also supervised by Dr. Green - collectively, "The Rurban Studios" - were together recognized by the American Institute of Architects as among the "best practices in sustainable design education" across architecture schools in the United States. One-page overview of the Urban-Rural Interface Project K.E. Green. The 'Biologic' of Architecture. In the Proceedings for the 2005 ACSA National Conference, Chicago, 522-530, 2005. The "Rurban Studio" selected by the AIA for "best practices in sustainable design education." The "Rurban Studio" featured in Dennis Dullen's Design Biomimetics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web-Link House Houses as Automobiles, Appliances and Digital Routers for Portland, Oregon Keith Evan Green, Architect + Michael Ellison, Materials Scientist/Engineer Web-link house is a circuit connecting people, devices and places–locally & globally. Web-link house is a machine for living in that eliminates the concept of waste. Web-link house integrates contemporary life with the web of life. Web-link house is not a conventional house that shelters appliances, automobiles and digital devices. Web-link house IS the automobile, the appliance, the computer. Web-link house is a chassis + a nucleus. The nucleus affords all the routines of life - bathing, cooking, working, relaxing - in a mobile unit embedded with technologies comprised of six sections, each section devoted to one primary function. Drive the nucleus into the chassis of the Web-link house and disperse its sections as you please. Going away for an extended period? Take the nucleus of your home with you. Maintenance problem? Detach its mobile module and have it repaired or replaced. Want to upgrade? By the new section; trade/sell the old one off like a used car. No elaborate installations here: the nucleus eliminates the need, cost, waste, and damage done by mill work, finishing and transportation costs associated with typical residential construction. Web-link house features and materials: Web-link building envelope, a laminated film panel of genetically engineered silk and bio-plastic, serves as both “sensor” and “mechanism” for controlling climate inside the house, eliminating the need for a cumbersome “advanced,” “state of the art” system of mechanical louvers controlled by switches or computer sensors ready to fail. This silk/bio-plastic envelope makes the building its own sensor and ventilating system. The building envelope respires naturally, controlling ventilation and the in-take/out-take of moisture. A change in barometric pressure changes the bio-composite’s permeability (as humidity causes changes in the spider’s web). A capillary surface material wicks away water [Copyright, Author, 2004]. Web-link roof is an array of two different panels. One panel is translucent hollow fiber, not unlike a paint brush bristle, filled with liquid crystals that change color with a change in temperature, providing an ever-changing atmosphere underneath the continuous, elevated courtyard [Copyright, Author, 2004]. The other panel is a photosynthetic solar cell that, by employing spinach, replenishes itself as plants do.... One-page overview of the Web-Link House. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animated Box A Live-Work Digital Arts Colony in Greenville, South Carolina Keith Evan Green, "Rurban Studio" M.Arch. Thesis Supervisor This M.Arch. final-year studio was dedicated to giving form to working life in a digital society. We aimed to realize design outcomes that were less sculptural, more performative: “animated boxes.” Our design activities coupled with those of the concurrent Electrical and Computing Engineering's ECE 655: “An Introduction to Robot Manipulators” offered to Masters students by my research collaborator Dr. Ian Walker. The outcomes advanced knowledge and understanding in both Architecture and Computer Science and Engineering by defining the “robot as a room” and the “room as a robot.” Redefining what constitutes Architecture, Robotics and Information Technology (IT) is not only a conceptual leap in these disciplines but a fully appropriate, even necessary response to conditions in working life that are both technological and social. Three-page overview of the Animated Box Live-Work Colony.