What Is Responsive Architecture?: Responsive architecture is the kind of architecture that responds to the environment around it. When I mention the environment around, this encompasses all the tangible and the intangible parameters that govern architecture. It is not merely responsive; it is adaptive and flexible as well. It responds to the changes in climate, the surroundings, the user orientation as well as itself.
Idea of Responsive Architecture
Responsive architecture deals with responding to the governing parameters of a design. It starts with the understanding of response to stimuli idea, being applied in the case of buildings. For example- Stimuli being the climate, the user activity or the building function and the response being an energy-efficient building, kinetic design, or actuated tensegrity. Traditionally, buildings are meant to be static structures but with evolution arouse an intermingling of explorations in the field of technology and growing needs leading to the need for responsive architecture. In today’s time, they are achieved at different levels of design such as the building skin, interiors, art installations, structural integrity of built form, and many more. There are even instances of exploring the material quality to such an extent to make the architecture responsible in sustainable ways. One such example is the HygroSkin pavilion in France. Built-in 2013, this pavilion is the best example of materially ingrained responsiveness. Here, the wood used for construction responds to the humidity changes in the surrounding providing a responsive pavilion.
The Timeline
The earliest examples of the responsive architecture date back to Peter Cook’s ‘The Walking City’ of the early 1960s. The term ‘Responsive architecture’ was coined by Nicholas Negroponte by the late 1960s. The ideas of responsive architecture were considered neo-futuristic at that point in time but in today’s date, these are all relevant explorations in the field of architecture.
Why Responsive Architecture?
Through responsive architecture, you can make the buildings adaptive to the climatic changes which make the building sustainable and energy-efficient. It also mirrors the technological advancements of the current time. If sensitively designed, they can also mirror the cultural bearings of the current time. It provides scope to explore the interaction of space and people. This relationship is profoundly termed as ‘the poetics of space’. This relationship can be explored through an interactive design approach for which the study of the user group and their activities, as well as the response to the design interventions, is of utmost importance. It is a field of architecture that tends to establish an efficient relationship between the user and the space giving rise to dynamic social experience. One such example is a permanent installation by Electroland at Indianapolis Airport. Here, the aspects of sound and light were tapped in to create a design focusing on human dynamics. A pedestrian bridge with a responsive intervention creates an interesting user experience in this design.
Can Responsive Architecture Aid Psychological Wellbeing?
It is a well-established fact that architecture instigates psychological well-being. Be it the use of colors, the audio-visual effects, the textures used, the play of light in the space, etc… all of this shapes the psychology in a very subtle way. It is important to understand that when we mention surroundings shape our psychology, that involves the lifestyle we are living, the people we interact with as well as the architecture we are involving with. The shifting paradigm of wellbeing from not merely being physical but also considering psychological wellbeing is a key factor that drives responsive architecture to aid psychological well-being. Studying neural sensations and effectively responding to the same can be achieved through responsive architecture. This can direct responsive architecture to provide improved surroundings to nurture a human.
Understanding the relationship between people and space along with a conscious understanding of user needs is a factor that governs the design of responsive architecture. If the same is applied to a deeper scenario to facilitate the psychological needs of a person, how marvellous that architecture would be? Can psychological stimuli induced in architecture derive effective responses? Can architecture be our friend who soothes us during all bad times? All this is possible through responsive architecture, a tool to aid psychological wellbeing but all we need as architects are the consciousness to respond to this aspect of design.
