Miles will be presenting at ACADIA 2008, October 16-19. Miles will be talking about how new trends in the design of interactive interfaces can influence the ways we design interactive space.
Currently, a new interactive movement is beginning to take place in architecture whereby we are seeing increased desire to create space that has the ability to dynamically interact with users. A number of emerging technologies and insights are being made in paralleling fields that will have a vast influence on future spatial interactivity.
BMW has designed a shape-shifting car covered with fabric.
Instead of steel, aluminum or even carbon fiber, the GINA Light Visionary Model has a body of seamless fabric stretched over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will. The car — which actually runs and drives — is a styling design headed straight for the BMW Museum in Munich and so it will never see production, but building a practical car wasn’t the point.
Chris Bangle and is team actually built GINA, which stands for “Geometry and functions In ‘N’ Adaptions”, six years ago, but BMW kept it under, er, wraps until Tuesday. It’s built on the Z8 chassis and has a 4.4-liter V8 and six-speed automatic transmission. BMW says the fabric skin - polyurethane-coated Lycra - is resilient, durable and water resistant. It’s stretched over an aluminum frame controlled by electric and hydraulic actuators that allow the owner to change the body shape. Want a big spoiler on the back? Wider fenders? No problem. “The drastic reinterpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car,” BMW says.
Spatial Robots, created by Miles Kemp in 2007, is a website dedicated to cataloging, discussing and promoting interactive spatial systems, user interfaces and emerging technology in architecture.
