Showing posts with label 325 Church St. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 325 Church St. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Toronto Design Offsite 2016: 325 Church Street: BLOMÉ

Throughout the course of history, human activity has created detrimental effects on the environment in a variety of ways and scales. In our recent years, these implications have been magnified and are constantly discussed globally, criticizing our behavior and relationship to the sensitive earth on which we exist. Humans have wiped out harmless species, demolished beautiful, natural landscapes and infested the soils and water of the Earth with poison. We have exploited and savaged the environment for our own selfishness and ease of lifestyle. Blomé is an installation that speaks to the effects of our activity in a metaphoric way.

How can we get back to the purity of the landscape before we took it for granted? How can we once again learn to appreciate the movements of the natural, its character, and personality? Are we too far gone to recognize and idealize natural beauty, and enjoy it for the atmosphere and not its economic value?

To express the ways our movements as humans cause a reaction on landscapes and environments, a fragile white form hovers mere meters from the ground, with lengths undulating like waves. Strips of translucent, airy, white fabric and porous netting stand perfectly still and static, only fluttering from the movement of visitors who walk past ultrasonic sensors, activating a fan. The fan enhances the movement of strips, causing them to dance and move, just as every move we make on this planet causes a reaction – no matter how subtle. The sensors also activate lights, which brighten and pulsate, like stars moving across the sky. We believe that this, a brightening, a gentle breeze, and swaying in the move are all beautiful movements found naturally in the environment, and are encapsulated in Blomé as reminders to tread lightly.

Carving out space, creating caverns from cloud like fabric reverses the ways we perceive and move through space; how and where we understand boundaries. Do you duck beneath the fabric and walk slowly or pace quickly through it? This is comment on how we perceive our environment; do we barrel through, claiming what is our space from the fragile boundaries and layers, or do we respect it, trying to preserve its natural qualities?








Toronto Design Offsite 2016: 325 Church Street: SOMNIUM

Somnium is a dynamic, reactive display whereby the light, movement, and texture of a single fluid unit becomes tributary to the beauty of the whole. To an observer, the floor to ceiling spires initially appear still and dimly lit, as if asleep. But upon approach, the fabric sheath is drawn upwards, and a soft inner light kindles into brightness. Together the spires awaken as if from a dream. Here the expressiveness of fabric is explored through the use of pleats, folds, and layers, while mechanical movement parallels the lighting effects therein. The result is a mesmerizing installation that is just as effective with a few users as it is with many, and the experience is never quite the same each time.









Toronto Design Offsite 2016: 325 Church Street: WHISPER

Whisper is an installation that allows people to share their secrets. The design is inspired by the candlestick telephone that features a transmitter and a receiver in the shape of a bell. Many bells hang from the ceiling to form the whole installation. Some bells contain a speaker, sensor and microphone.
The installation functions through motion sensors at variety of distances to either record or play recordings. When an object appears within 10 cm of the sensor, the microphone begins recording a short message. When someone is within 1 meter of the sensor, the speaker is activated.








Toronto Design Offsite 2016: 325 Church Street: NOVA

NOVA is an installation inspired by the natural phenomenon itself. A star that suddenly increases in brightness and then slowly returns to its natural state over time. The hanging structure proposed increases in brightness as people approach it; the closer the person is, the brighter the structure becomes. The use becomes engulfed by a bright space, surrounded by tessellating tetrahedrons. Each surface of the tessellation contains a reflective surface, the closest of which is an infinity mirror that resonates the bright space. These mirrors reflect all of the light on the structure infinitely, providing the experience of being in the cosmos themselves.










Toronto Design Offsite 2016: 325 Church Street: RAINMAKER

The cylindrical form insulates the installation from outside noises and visual interference. In doing so the interactor can become fully immersed in the dense soundscape, and remove themselves from the urban context, embracing the audio rainscape created.









Toronto Design Offsite 2016: Digital Tools Prototypes at 325 Church Street



Here are some samples of this year's upcoming Digital Tools prototypes that will be on display in the Architecture Building at 325 Church Street. This sampling is particularly impressive given that the students had access to fabrication resources for all of FOUR days.











Wednesday, January 22, 2014

More imagery of some of the 325 Church Street Prototypes

Here are some glam shots of some of the 325 Church Street Prototypes. We encourage everyone to come down and visit the Department of Architectural Science and see the collaborative and interactive work Ryerson University students have assembled.





Monday, January 20, 2014

What the HEC helped...

Continuing the spirit of collaboration within the university, the Architectural Science students creating the prototypes for the Toronto Design Offsite festival (displayed at the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University) worked with students from the Hobby Electronic Club (HEC) in ensuring the technology could render the desired effects.  They did not disappoint. Had it not been for the great contributions from Sami and Anna, the designs would be shells of what could be possible. Thanks to their assistance, the installations for the 2014 TODO festival at the ARC Building (325 Church Street) truly demonstrate the collaborative strengths that make Ryerson University such a great place to part of.










Thursday, December 12, 2013

TODO Junction: 325 Church Street

As the year comes to an end, the [R]ed[U]x Lab continues to work on a steady stream of projects. One of the projects that the team looks forward to is the Toronto Design Offsite festival - this year there are two sites for the public to see some of the work by the group.

The first site consists of a display of interactive prototype work from the Digital Tools course in the ARC building at 325 Church Street. Though the works are prototypical they also hold promise for evolution into future, large-scale projects. Here are a few examples of projects in development:

LIGHTWAVE



ILLUSTRO




REVERB



 INTO THE VOID




SINE



BLURRED LINES