For a long period of time, architecture had been considered ‘static’ for most purposes. However, starting from basic individual ‘moving elements’ like doors, windows, elevators, etc., technology has helped architects to design buildings that move as a whole or a part. Kinetic elements have more commonly found expression as media and interactive facades. This course covers many interesting examples of facades.

Further, integration of kinetics into the façade inorder to modulate daylight, shading and/or ventilation have taken the climate responsive design to the next level. Not only such buildings are interactive, they serve specific functions to enhance occupant comfort with reduced energy use. This course will enumerate interesting projects having climate responsive facades.

The dynamic nature of such facades requires that the design process to be iterative assessing numerous design and functional parameters to arrive at a optimized solutions. An example of such a performative design process using a suite of simulation tools is discussed in the last module of the course. 

The course is structured in 6 modules with two instructors and a moderator. This content is highly visual and engaging. At the end of the course, you can confidently identify what kinetic facades are and the iterative design process that is required to design such facades.