smartwrap: the mass customizable print façade .................................................................................................................................................................
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smartwrap: the mass customizable print façade a 24-foot-high outdoor pavilion on show, designed by stephen kieran and james timberlake cooper-hewitt design museum, new york august 5 - october 10, 2003 http://www.si.edu/ndm --- take a look at that plastic soda bottle. now imagine a wall, or even the facade of a whole building, made from the same material. smartwrap is the building envelope of the future: it is made up of several layers - including a substrate, printed and laminated layers - all of which are roll-coated into a single composite film. together, they have the capacity of providing shelter, climate control, lighting and information display, and power. visitors are able to walk through the smartwrap installation and customize their own design of a smartwrap wall. --- how shelter: polyester film substrate. protection from rain and wind is provided by a polyester-mixture (PET) film that also acts as the substrate for the various other smartwrap layers. climate control: phase change materials. to moderate temperature, smartwrap contains micro-capsules of phase change materials. the microcapsules are embedded into a polymer resin and then extruded into a film. the phase change materials provide latent heat storage for thermal moderation by absorbing, storing, or releasing heat as they change state. lighting and information display: OLED technology. to provide lighting and information display, smartwrap uses organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology that is thin, flexible, and self-emissive. OLED technology is based on organic molecules that emit light (photons) when an electric current is applied. OLEDs are either made in polymer form, or small molecules that can be deposited onto glass and plastic substrates. (OLED technology is currently used in the market in the displays of mobile phones and personal handheld computer devices.) power: thin film batteries, thin film silicon cells and conductive ink. since buildings have large surface areas that are exposed to the sun, they are ideal solar collectors. smartwrap decreases dependence on external power by utilizing solar energy. thin film silicon solar cells in the smartwrap are used to power the OLED technology. thin film batteries store excess energy, and the conductive ink provides the conduit for the activation of these technologies. --- time efficient smartwrap replaces the conventional 'bulky' wall with a composite on the millimeter scale that can be erected in a fraction of conventional building time and with greater ease. only a few days were needed to erect the aluminum frame and wrap it in plastic sheets. --- strictly notional smartwrap and other new technologies are still rare and expensive, and only some are becoming commercially viable. this may explain why the black, green and yellow shapes printed on the wrap of the pavilion are nonworking representations of the different electronic devices. --- stephen kieran and james timberlake of kierantimberlake associates, a philadelphia firm specializing in buildings for colleges and universities. the two architects teach at the university of pennsylvania, and the idea came out of a graduate-level lab they run there. the architects envision a system in which elements such as diodes and batteries would be printed directly onto the PET, similar to what's done with inkjet printers. clients/constructors could use a computer to configure the elements however they wished, putting the diodes where they were most useful and creating windows by leaving spaces blank. timberlake poined out that 'americans invented balloon framing in the mid-19th century as an inexpensive alternative to post-and-beam construction'. 'mass customization can replace mass production in building. 'kieran said, 'OLED.'s could display any pattern or image desired, the facade of mount vernon, for example, or an advertisement. one thing smartwrap can do, is change color. adapting a building to its site will take on new meaning when its walls can turn orange to match fall foliage.' the technologies already exist, and could be ready for public use in as few as three to five years. at the moment the architects are looking at how to make the PET more durable. http://www.kierantimberlake.com http://www.mb2010.com --- matilda mcquaid is the cooper-hewitt's curator of exhibitions and textiles. 'the show is intended to be a kind of provocation to designers and architects,' she said, 'it is the first of a series of planned shows at the museum called -solos-, highlighting innovative design and architecture. instead of just looking at technology as a means to design buildings, we wanted to look at technology applied to the whole buildin.' --- visionary proposal for a revolutionizing building skin smartwrap is made possible by DuPont. one of DuPont's products, Tyvek®, a building liner that keeps heat in and moisture out, has quietly changed construction over the last decade. --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	smartwrap, on display in the cooper-hewitt museum's arthur ross terrace garden, image courtesy cooper-hewitt museum smartwrap pavilion, under construction, image courtesy cooper-hewitt museum smartwrap pavilion, under construction, detail image courtesy cooper-hewitt museum smartwrap pavilion, under construction, concrete basement, image courtesy cooper-hewitt museum exhibit proposal, image courtesy kierantimberlake associates how smartwrap is made: it utilizes roll to roll and deposition printing techniques, image courtesy kierantimberlake associates stephen kieran and james timberlake, image courtesy kierantimberlake associates