Adaptive Fritting Installation at Harvard Graduate School of Design

Hoberman created a dynamic installation for Harvard Graduate School of Design based on the original invention Adaptive Fritting. As with standard fritted glass, this invention utilizes a graphic pattern in order to control heat gain and modulate light, while allowing sufficient transparency for viewing.

While conventional fritting relies on a fixed pattern, adaptive fritting provides a surface controllable transparency that can modulate between opaque and transparent states. This performance is achieved by shifting a series of fritted glass layers such that the graphic pattern alternately aligns and diverges.

The installation at Gund Hall consists of six motorized panels comprising a 24-foot by 4-foot window, housed within a curved wall. These panels are programmed to form a dynamic field where light transmission, views and enclosure continuously adapt and change. As they transform, the visual effect is of sparse dots blossoming into an opaque surface.

Winner of the Wyss Prize for Bioinspired Adaptive Architecture, the installation was commissioned for a joint exhibition and conference titled Ecological Urbanism: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• adaptive
• fritting
• installation
• harvard
• sustainable
• technologies
• hoberman

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