programmable body

Trans-ports network

The complete trans-ports network consists of a series of active structures around
the world and their virtual parent structures residing on the Internet
· Visitors of the www.trans-ports.com website navigate and manipulate
the virtual structures, by playing the real time trans-ports game ·
Visitors of the Biennale2000 installation in Venice play a collective
game to explore the different modes of trans-ports, the data-driven
pavilion that changes shape and content in real time · The network of
the real and the virtual pavilions on the internet feels like one big
organism with an array of connected cells · One can seamlessly jump
from real to virtual and back again · Changes in the real influence the
content of the virtual and vice versa · In this way the complex of real
and virtual structures is experienced as one consistent hyperbody ·

Active structures

The active structure trans-ports digests fresh data in real time · It is nothing
like the traditional static architecture which is calculated to resist
the biggest possible forces · On the contrary, the trans-ports
structure is a lean device which relaxes when external or internal
forces are modest, and tightens when the forces are fierce · It acts
like a muscle · In the trans-ports concept the data representing
external forces come from the Internet and the physical visitors who
produces the data which act as the parameters for changes in the
physical shape of the active structures ·

Electronic interior skin

The interior skin is a giant virtual window to a variety of global information sources
like websites or webcams · The public is no longer looking at
information, they are immersed inside information · Information is
transported to the fully programmable interior skin · Through sensors
the local public activates remote camera’s and enters linked websites ·
The interior skin shapes and folds itself keeping track of the changes
of the physical shape of the pavilion ·

Pneumatic muscles

The physical structure trans-ports adjusts its shape according to the data received
from the real time trans-ports game · A definite possibility is to
build a spaceframe completely composed of pneumatic bars · All bars can
adjust their length · They all will work together like a flocking swarm
of filaments in a muscular bundle · All bars are individually
controlled by structural engineering software · This programme analyses
the changes in shape and calculates in real time the actual lengths of
all cooperating pneumatic bars ·

Flexible exterior skin

Both the inner skin and the outer skin of trans-ports follow the changes of the data-driven
pneumatic structure · The waterproof exterior skin must be flexible in
two directions · A new type of membrane must be developed to meet these
demands · Primary research focuses on the concept of a
three-dimensional molded rubbersheet · Smaller sheets of rubber are
vulcanized together to form one continuous skin ·

Installation trans-ports at the Biennale2000

An immerse projection in the cave (measuring 7x7x7m) at the Biennale2000 evokes
the feeling of being inside the active structure of the trans-ports
pavilion · On the floor 128 built-in sensors are triggered by the
public · This local public feels the presence of the global public
playing the real time trans-ports game at the same time · This global
public is represented in the installation as brightly coloured light
beams projected from the ceiling · Local and global public performs a
dance together · The array of sensors functions like the mouse of the
computer · Through internetcomputers outside the cave the public can
locally access the game and change the shape and content of trans-ports
in the way the global visitors do ·

The six “modes” of trans-ports

The most important feature of the trans-ports pavilion is that architecture for the first
time in its history is no longer fixed and static · Due to its full
programmability of both form and information content the construct
becomes a lean and flexible vehicle for a variety of usage · To make
all this very clear we have conceived six different “modes” performed
by the installation at the Biennale: 1)”artmode”: the construct is a
true piece of art, content and shape programmed by visual artist Ilona
Lénárd, 2)”officemode”: the construct being the vehicle for showing
projects by the architectural office oosterhuis ·nl, 3) “networkmode”
links the vehicle to the work of other designers, 4)”infomode” exploits
the trans-ports vehicle for broadcasting news from the architectural
frontline, 5)”commercial mode” where our sponsors feed the cave space
with their commercial content, and 6)”dancemode”: trans-ports
transforms into a multimedia partyzone ·

credits

date: 2001

site: venice italy

project architect: prof ir kas oosterhuis

design team: Kas Oosterhuis, Ilona Lénárd, Ole Bouman, Andre Houdart, Nathan Lavertue,
Philippe Müller, Richard Porcher, Franca de Jonge, Leo Donkersloot,
Birte Steffan, Jan Heijting, Arthur Schwimmer, Chris Kievid, Michael
Bittermann, Michi Tomaselli, Hans Hubers

client: biennale 2000 venice

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