| Eco 29 is a dynamically morphing, spatially adaptable wedding hall / event space. The project draws upon many fields of knowledge outside of architecture including mechanical engineering, computer science, digital projection, tensile design and acoustics. The design of the kinetics itself incorporates aspects from windsurfing, rock-climbing, sailing and traditional industrial automation. The motivation for this project relates to dynamically changing spatial layouts that addresses desires to have rapid changes within the context of how a wedding ceremony is carried out as well as the need to adapt the space for other events such as a marketplace or corporate product launch. There is great potential for dynamic architecture that arises from understanding what a space is currently doing and how it can aid in promoting or accommodating a specific change.
Initially, the project began as an exercise to create a space which could very quickly change to accommodate a variety of layouts and scenarios that are inherent within the context of a wedding. The notion quickly arose that the building would have the capability to quite literally physically encourage hundreds of people to move around the space. The concept was developed whereby a “soft” architecture would be developed within the rigid confines of the existing warehouse building. The concept was then diagrammed as to how it could accommodate a number of spatial scenarios that came about through attending several weddings and understanding the sequencing of space throughout the ceremony. It was also required that the space could be opened up to be as large as possible for other events that might occur within the space and that there would be a stage at one end of the building and an open garden at the other. In effect, the space had to have absolute three-dimensional flexibility. The final construction included many aesthetic considerations and was coordinated with projection mapping onto the fabric, acoustic design and general event lighting.
Eco 29 is a project which begins to map out a world where we have a wealth of potential for motion, a world in which spaces and objects can move and transform to facilitate numerous changing situations, ranging from the contextual and environmental to the programmatic. Our capabilities for using kinetics in architecture today can be extended far beyond what has previously been possible. Advancement, however, will only be accomplished when kinetic structures are addressed not primarily or singularly, but as an integral component of a larger architectural system.
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