Antoni Gaudi Renzo Piano When in Turin for... Artissima 16 When in... Chicago World Monuments Fund Lists 93 Endangered Sites Museums in the 21st Century: Concepts, Projects, Buildings Five Pritzker Winners to Help Design French Arts Center Light and Grace Triumph in Renzo Piano’s Chicago Debut

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

It is clear that the Living are in love with technology. But the nascent architectural practice — run by recent Columbia University architecture school grads David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang — don’t just want to use cutting-edge technical knowledge for its own sake. According to Yang, the Living is "interested in a utopian vision that can be implemented with today’s technology." Their forward-thinking, ecologically minded projects thus far include Living Glass, a building panel façade that responds to information about air quality, opening and closing its gills to regulate airflow; and River Glow, a network of pods that float in public waterways and monitor water quality, which is indicated by a cloud of light that hovers above the water’s surface, changing colors according to the chemical conditions below. Both ventures indicate a keen sensitivity to the nuances of the shifting environment and an interest in making its fluctuations public through visible, accessible interfaces. In fact, the Living list environmental concerns — "pollution control, carbon dioxide reduction, and alternative energy sources," among them — as key to realizing their larger goal: a new urban environment in which buildings are able to communicate intelligently and collaborate to improve air quality and save energy. While Benjamin, who was born in East Lansing, Michigan, in 1972, acknowledges that some cities are addressing environmental concerns — for instance, London’s congestion charging for vehicles — he notes that he has yet to see a fully integrated urban approach such as the one that he and Yang propose.

There are many varieties of human intelligence, but the one that our built environment could likely benefit from the most is the ability to adapt one’s behavior to fit new circumstances. The three-year-old the Living — so named because of their interest in organic processes — are targeting just this kind of intelligence in the urban environment. A truly intelligent building network would allow each building to turn out its own lights, reduce air-conditioning in response to temperature changes, and share occupancy information to keep office blocks running at capacity. This is not a new idea: intelligent buildings have long been part of the 20th-century vision offered by high-tech architects, but the ideas were initially ahead of the technology available. The most famous example of this is the Pompidou Centre, or Beaubourg, built by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano in 1977. Designed as a prototype with flexible and responsive flooring and an adjustable solar façade system, Beaubourg is still a high-maintenance challenge. Since the mid-’80s, however, more reliable intelligent technology has made advanced building-management control systems possible. Such technologies, in particular those applied at the façade interface, or skin of the building, could also enhance the urban experience functionally and visually for both occupants and passersby.

The Living cite like-minded projects such as the New York-based urban-interventionist alternative-energy company Verdant Power as a source of inspiration. Verdant Power currently has projects to bring hydroelectric power from the Hudson River to Manhattan using underwater turbines to harness free-flowing tidal energy. Benjamin and Yang (who was born in 1974 and grew up in Seoul) are also inspired by Solúcar’s 40-meter-tower in Seville, Spain, due to be completed in 2013. Once finished, the Spanish power company’s tower will collect solar energy with cheap mirrors instead of pricey photovoltaic cells. Benjamin says that the latter project is important to them because it "effectively fuses both visual and technical effects." Noting this, he sounds a bit like a young Richard Rogers, raising the intriguing possibility of a high-tech architectural resurgence, fueled this time around by environmental and digital technologies.