»Imagine a space that functions like a three-dimensional website. Instead of pointing and clicking, attention is drawn to focal points through the physical architecture's dynamic response to bodily movement. This response can include light but also sound and video, creating narratives that can be dynamic, soothing, bold, informative-and always interactive. And like a website, the entire system is connected to a web-based control platform that records how the space is used, similar to hit counters on a website.

This is the vision of Brad Koerner, an assistant designer at Light This!, a lighting design firm in Boston, MA.

'During the past decade, theatrical lighting design and technology have slowly migrated into the more permanent realm of architectural design,' said Koerner. 'If we add digital media to the mix, the convergence of architecture, theater and interactive media can create a new fusion of design methodologies that can very quickly lead us to radically new types of interactive built environments.'

Koerner began his investigation of this concept of convergence at Harvard University, where he received his Master of Architecture degree. His first work with luminous environments was at an Osram Sylvania-sponsored material research studio that experimented with the potential uses of OLED technology, for which he won an Interiors Magazine award in 2001 for Best Student/Conceptual Work.

His thesis work, supported by the IESNA's Richard Kelly Grant and the IALD's Education Trust Fund, detailed the potential of interactive luminous environments and received a Silver Award in I.D. Magazine's 2001 Interactive Media Design Review.

The narratives portrayed by light, sound and video can be emotive or descriptive; use objects, surfaces or zones as interfaces and/or 'hyperlinks' or 'web pages'; and can be sequential or fragmented (with independent, dynamically 'hyperlinked' interactive narratives). This design approach can work in any number of environments according to opportunity and imagination, but is ideally suited for retail, museum and educational environments, as well as any other display applications.


INTERACTIVE KIOSK

To demonstrate the concept, Koerner designed and prototyped an interactive kiosk. In the design, sensors detect occupancy and direction through ultrasonic, passive-infrared and touch methods. Input signals are sent to a control system, which includes a web-based hit counter and statistics package, then distributed to lighting controllers and video playback machines, which produce light, sound and video as instructed. The built kiosk, a scaled-down version using light as communication, is shown in Figures 1 and 2.

'Luminous surfaces, when coupled with advanced show control and proximity sensor technologies, become the most potent aspect of dynamic luminous architectural spaces,' said Koerner. 'It allows us to reconcile the digital realm with our tangible world, enabling designers to conceive their spaces as interfaces between these two worlds. This is where the poetics of design will head, creating unique methods for spaces to react based on the inhabitant's occupation of and movement throughout these spaces.'


INTERACTIVE PRODUCT DISPLAY

Koerner's next demonstration project involved a product display for Color Kinetics, Inc., a manufacturer of LED lighting products that had already been working on the coupling of sensors to LED lighting sources. Color Kinetics had already donated equipment to the kiosk thesis project and was excited about continuing to support the exploration of Koerner's convergence concept. Koerner supplied the concept, renderings and functional schematic, which were turned into reality by Color Kinetics and Davis Design. The result is an interactive product display case that Color Kinetics used in its booth at the LDI 2001 trade show in Orlando, FL.

The cabinet was constructed with cubbyholes to showcase key product lines and a VDT screen, which included a multimedia presentation about the company and bore an invitation to 'reach out and trigger yours.' When booth visitors did so, infrared sensors were triggered and the product/cubbyhole was brightly highlighted with LEDs in various colors-yellow, red, blue, green and others. The final interactive product display, which is still being showcased at Color Kinetics' Boston headquarters, is shown in Figures 3 and 4. The display provides a playful, informative architectural interface between potential customers and the company's messages and products.

'Interactive elements have the potential to create fascinating spatial possibilities,' said Koerner. 'Imagine a retail store with the dynamic power of a web-based retail site made into physical reality. Imagine a museum display that acts like an online encyclopedia as you move through it. Imagine an education environment for children that uses their interactions with the built space to impart an informative lesson. There are few areas of our built environment that could not be enhanced by some form of interactivity.'


BREAKING BOUNDARIES

To realize the potential of interactive luminous spaces, designers must become familiar with new technologies, says Koerner. Lighting technology has also evolved to offer extraordinary potential to create dynamic spaces with new light sources, fixtures, theatrical products and controls, while digital multimedia technology has proliferated in capabilities and use in the past 10 years. The designer should be aware of both to be able to integrate them successfully, incorporate them into the architectural scheme and create a legible narrative that is unveiled by human movement.

Designers must also incorporate the speed and pulse of the web into their lighting philosophies. Prevailing thought in lighting design is to create dynamic spaces through changes in light's intensity, color, patterns, use of contrast and other techniques. Now two more elements are added to the challenge-multimedia presentations and a functional interactive dynamic created between the environment and its inhabitants. To accomplish this, designers must rethink the idea of the spatial narrative and synthesize light, architecture and multimedia to add layers, power and compression to the narrative.

'It is my belief,' said Koerner, 'that architects and lighting designers will need to be able to design environments as conceptual interfaces that communicate a narrative. These spaces will have a living presence with their dynamic fusion of light and the human body, blending two seemingly disparate worlds together and reinvigorating the significance of our tangible experiences.'


March 2002 Architectural Lighting Magazine