What if humans are the parasite?

We are designing architecture to responds to the environment to protect people from nature. In a speculative future, what if architecture responded to protect nature from us?

Aurèlia Muñoz, Antoni Gaudí Study of a catenary arch for the Gaudí crypt at Colonia Güell1996

Reflecting on how Mimosa Pudica response to physical touch is to curl away, I thought about how to create a pneumatic structure that curls away if a person would get close to it. This was also inspired by Assignment 1.

Test 1

I attempted to turn this test into a larger scale model using a knitted “structure.” Right now the structure is connected to two motors to pump air in, however, another iteration would be to connect a motion sensor to it. Seen below:

While the curling is successful, its structure is less successful. Even with two pumps, at this scale it is difficult to get the pneumatic actuator to curl like the smaller prototype.

Some inspiration for the second iteration:

Omar Khan
Jenny Sabin