Spheres for interactive installation in London 2014

The winning project of the annual Arup competition involved 42 Winch10 Cable from Wahlberg Motion Design. 

During 3 weeks in June, 2014 the atrium of Arup's building in Fitzroy Street had interactive backlit spheres involved during the London Festival of Architecture.

The winning design comprised of an array of 42 light emitting spheres robotically puppeteered to rise and fall within Arup’s Headquarter Atrium in response to building activity.
A governing digital model and set of physical sensors allow data to be translated to movement and colour.

The installation is wirelessly manipulated and responds to inputs such as the current energy consumption within the building, the number of people working in the office, internet traffic intensity, noise from meetings rooms or even how much coffee is being consumed.

Rather than the designers predefining the installations full range of behaviour, workshops were run with Arup staff to incorporate their expertise into new repertoires of behaviour to find new types of applications.

Design of installation by Alma-nac and Ruairi Glynn.

The festival is a month-long, city-wide celebration of architectural experimentation, thinking, learning and practice.