Abstract
Kinetic building skins that dynamically adjust their physical properties or shapes according to outdoor conditions can improve a building's environmental performance. New engineered materials provide a new conceptual and practical framework for designers to conceive environmentally responsive architectural systems using smart materials. Therefore, it is crucial to develop design strategies to increase the range of possible design configurations and
enhance their performance as architectural elements. This presentation will overview our work on developing kinetic building envelopes that using several smart and bistable materials. I will first review recent advances in the field of smart materials that are used in building skin design. Then I will highlight a series of design strategies that we developed for different material systems, such as using kirigami and origami-inspired geometries for amplifying shape-changing mechanisms.
Brief bio
Elena Vazquez is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Stuckeman Center for Design Computation at Penn State. Elena holds an MS in Architecture and a graduate degree in Additive Manufacturing from Penn State. Her work has gained recognition in the form of awards and grants such as the American Institute of Architects Upjohn Research Initiative Grant and the Architectural Research Centers Consortium Research Incentive Award. Elena has extensively published in computer-aided architectural design proceedings, including eCAADe, Sigradi, Caadria, and CADFutures, and in peer-reviewed journals. Elena is a 2016-2018 Fulbright scholar and a 2020-2021 Waddell Biggart Graduate Fellow.