Cyber-physical architecture

i.

a robotic wall

The platform is a shape-changing wall of three columns that move on two-meter rails. It changes from a flat, rigid surface into a curved shelf or awning, stable enough to hold a laptop, cookware or books.

video: Jesse T. Gonzalez

ii.

four speculative design workshops

Twenty architects and designers, aged 24 to 34, took part in four three-hour workshops of four to six people. Each began with a demonstration of the wall and a small toy model to reconfigure by hand. We gave no example uses, so we would not steer their ideas.

Hands bending the toy model of the wall into an arch on a table.

A participant drawing an interaction flow storyboard on a printed template.

A participant colouring a storyboard, with the toy model on the table.

ideation · 25 minList, sketch or doodle any idea with a robotic surface. Where do you see these surfaces in the future, and how might they become part of everyday life?
narrowing · 15 minChoose six favourite ideas and add detail, with at least four using this kind of wall.
articulation · 60 minDraw interaction flows as storyboards for four ideas, with their context and scenario.
discussion · 60 minPresent the storyboards. How should agency be shared between people and walls? What values and concerns drove these scenarios?

iii.

participants’ storyboards

Participants imagined walls that make room for crowds at peak hours, turn into shelters in an earthquake, hand you ingredients while you cook, help someone through rehabilitation exercises or become a game.

Storyboards on space: optimizing for crowds, office partitioning, configuring a home for work or play, on-demand surfaces, public seating, child-friendly storage and multi-use furniture. — **space**Partitions, seating and storage that reconfigure.

Storyboards on protection and assistance: emergency response, halting decision fatigue, just-in-time shelves, temporary storage, accessible environments, games. — **protection and assistance**Shelters, a “third hand” in the kitchen, ramps and play.

Storyboards on support: massaging surfaces, tangible VR obstacles, structures for play, exercise and rehab, object stabilization and ergonomic adjustments. — **support**Massage, rehab, play and posture.

iv.

from storyboards to values

We read all storyboards and discussion transcripts and coded them with qualitative content analysis. Seven topics came up. We then coded every quote about values and refined the categories into eleven values.

form
function
values
contexts
users
ownership
interaction techniques

v.

a spectrum of eleven values

The values run from functional, the practical work a wall does, to relational, how people and a moving environment depend on each other. Each value is illustrated as a scene with the wall. Function mattered most, but a wall that only rearranges space may not justify its cost; it also needs to respond to people.

Illustrated spectrum from functional to relational values: optimization, physical extension and support, comfort and convenience, personalization, preserving autonomy, privacy and personal boundaries, cognitive offloading, aesthetic harmony, trust, dependability and safety, surprise and emergence, engagement and dynamism.

vi.

what came next

The team then ran a Wizard-of-Oz elicitation study with 12 people completing tasks with the wall. People mixed speech, gesture and touch, and left much of their intent unsaid. Both studies point to environments that need to infer what people want, while keeping them in control.