— Active | Passive

For this project, we developed a responsive surface based on the behaviors exhibited by the oxalis plant that we had studied earlier: the ability to change shape in response to light levels; clustering to reduce the number of actuators; and the repetition of a single auxetic form that could expand or contract to minimize or maximize exposure to light.

Through a series of physical and digital models, an auxetic-origami form was developed, that could be deployed with either linear or radial actuation. A servo-driven mechanism was designed to control the ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ of these modules in clusters of four. A set of Arduino controllers connects to the servos and a series of photo-sensors. The light readings from the sensors are processed by a Firefly/Grasshopper interface which interprets the data and sends corresponding instructions to the servos. The result is a dynamic modular surface that is responsive to local and global changes in the environment.