Interactive installations and IoT for an urban and architectural parametric design

The research project aims at proposing a new digital parametric approach for the urban and architectural design. In particular, the focus is on the renewal of abandoned areas through the implementation of interactive installations based on IoT models. The technological strategy proposed could have a relevant role for the urban design process, since it allows a social involvement of the citizens and thus the upgrade of the area on which it is implemented through the increase of people attendance. Despite some past researches consider that the wider use of numerical tools has led to a strong depersonalization of the land and a marginalization of individuals, the research promotes the possibility of using technological innovations for social and urban aims, i.e. boosting the social relations between citizens, as well as their relationship with the urban territory and its identity. Indeed, the project promotes the conscient use of new digital technologies from a social and urban perspective, considering that citizens’ creativity and innovative artistic systems could be able to populate and upgrade the empty and blighted urban spaces. The strategy is based on the realization of interactive installations grounded on a precise algorithm able to capture the sound waves emitted by the visitors by playing instruments or singing, speaking or making any noises, and to translate them in colored light signals. The implemented technology provides for the use of the following innovative digital tools and devices: (i) audio devices (microphones) for grabbing the sound input; (ii) a parametric design software (Grasshopper) for the modeling and the control of the output variability; (iii) a microcontroller (Arduino) for analyzing the audio tracks imported and translating the sound impulses acquired (input) into colored lights emitted (output), through precise algorithms. Through the analysis of the sound waves produced by music and noises emitted by people, the lighting system generates patterns and reproduces them in the form of LED lighting. This type of lighting, like all the other tools, responds to the main paradigms of the research: sustainability and energy efficiency; cost-effectiveness; limited size; prototyping facility. Furthermore, the prototype and its hardware/software components have been developed with the idea of modularity and scalability of the project as key features. Hence, the model designed through such a parametric approach could be implemented in different social and urban contexts, guarantying versatility, repeatability and sustainability. With these tools the possibility of connecting a series of devices together in an IoT fashion is straightforward and therefore it is possible to envisage the easy and fast implementation of this technology at an enlarged scale (i.e. buildings, urban areas, cities).