Constructing agency 2017-2019

machcube

Studio Theodore Spyropoulos

Tutors Mostafa El-Sayed, Apostolos Despotidis

Team Pengfei Gao (China), Ali Rais (India), Xiujing Wang (China)

Machcube, as a research project, is an epistemological investigation of architecture as an infrastructure that acts as a distributed system within a city. Through a continuous dialogue our architectural system is based on a dynamic framework which adapts to the needs of its surrounding environment. We propose a self-organising and adaptive system which is mobile and has the capability to self-structure. The research began by studying and analysing the potential of the cube and its variation of patterns to initiate mobility and flexibility. Further iterations on the evaluation of the criteria for mobility and self-structuring resulted in a flexible unit, which based on its rotation allows to have different states of self-assembly, reconfiguration and motion. The mobility of the units is based on a series of rule sets and a system of communication strategies that have been developed using light and sensors as a medium between the units themselves as well as with the interaction of their users.

The proposal creates an architectural system that is about collective experience and not the singular. Based on a five-unit chain working together that highlights the co-dependencies of the unit rather then on their individuality the focus is placed on the choreographed behaviour ensuring an importance to the system. The aim is to blur the difference between the one and the many within our environment.

We have utilised machine learning and artificial intelligence in parallel with various communication strategies resulting in a system that can observe and create infrastructure at a large scale organisation allowing for spatial strategies, a distributed landscape condition and for city inhabitants to be entertained through their interaction with the collective units. Therefore, the project provides possibilities to create spaces within the city providing a new idea of culture in which people are an active agent in real-time space making and urban configuration.