Chapter 4: Participatory Urbanism + Design

Interactive Architecture

Christina Farrell_Bottom Up Urbanism_Fall 2012

Howeler + Yoon /MY Studio is a Boston based multidisciplinary practice, operating in the space between architecture, art and landscape. They believe in interactive architecture using media as a material. Their projects not only provide the user with a sense of place and belonging but also allow the user to become a part of the architecture through interactive media. Drawing influence from todays networked society they seek to create a network linking nodes, places, and individuals through architecture.

Electronic deviceshave created new opportunities for public engagement, responsiveness, and interaction.-Howeler+ Yoon
Howeler + Yoon broaden the definition of architecture by using interactive media in their projects that turns the passive viewer into the active participant. These techno-architectural interventions are only complete when there is a user experiencing them. Howeler + Yoon engage the user to the extent that the architecture is dependent upon the user, this architectural idea begins to create a dialog between architecture, media and the human body.

Case Study 01 White Noise White Light

The public space is defined by its user.

It is through the actions of the public that these projects transform from merely responsive to adaptive. Howeler + Yoon

Case Study 02 Lo Rez Hi Fi

In the lobby there are screens of LED lights. The screens have 10,000 individually controlled LEDs. The screens stream the buildings address and also have sensors so that when people walk by their shadow is cast with the LED lights behind them. These installations depend on the interactions of the user to be complete.

Case Study 03 Mood Wall

Case Study 04 Defensible Dress

Sensors in the back of the dress make the dress expand if someone comes too close. The user can define their comfort zone. The Meadowlands facility is the only professional football stadium to be shared by two teams so Howeler + Yoon propose draping the entire stadium in an LED net to broadcast different information for different teams.

Case Study 05 Meadowlands

LED screen draped over the stadium allows content to be displayed at a larger than life scale.

Recasting architecture as the production of environments to engage the public in larger dialogues, these projects reclaim architectures place as a primary conduit of information in the public realm. They understand architecture as a mass media capable of producing new publics that engage the structures of communication and transmission.- Howeler + Yoon

1.Yoon, J. Meejin, and Eric Hweler. Expanded Practice: Hweler + Yoon Architecture / My Studio. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural, 2009. Print. 2. http://www.mystudio.us/