Diurnal Envelope

Another quick project from the Artist in Residence at Autodesk Pier 9.....This high-performance / low-tech design develops an ongoing interest (begun in 1998) in using passive off-the-shelf components to activate individual architectural apertures or entire enclosures for environmental control. In this case, taking readily available greenhouse window/vent auto-openers which use pistons (filled with a temperature sensitive wax) that expand and contract to create mechanical movement and using them to actuate dynamic facade/surface ventilation.

See the stop frame video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLWfCVumNdU

Various origami folding techniques were explored for methods of opening and closing the apertures. This particular system uses a hex or honeycomb geometry, but a number of geometries could potentially work.

*the assembly shown here is an approximately half scale mock-up with manually adjusted operation.