Interaction with the outside of a building isn't something that happens often, unless the passerby takes a picture or points out the design to someone else. George Zisiadis wants to change that with his new design for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.
His proposed design intends to place a 10-foot pinwheel on the side of the building that is connected to tubes in the plaza below. If a person blows in the tube, the pinwheel will start spinning. Zisiadis says that he wants the exterior to have some of the interactive elements that are featured inside the museum.
"They want people to engage with their art in a very hands-on way, which I find very empowering and inspiring," Zisiadis told Fast Company. "I wanted to extend this idea to the physical structure of the building itself.”
He wants to keep the mechanism driving the pinwheel mysterious in order to make the experience more fun for visitors, but it's pretty simple. When someone blows into the tube, hidden microphones pick up the sound and connected motors then make the pinwheel spin.
Zisiadis hopes that his design will encourage people to interact with the whole building and transform the way they perceive public space.
Related Stories
| Apr 12, 2011
American Institute of Architects announces Guide for Sustainable Projects
AIA Guide for Sustainable Projects to provide design and construction industries with roadmap for working on sustainable projects.
| Apr 11, 2011
Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium
The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid and provide power to UNT’s new football stadium.
| Apr 8, 2011
SHW Group appoints Marjorie K. Simmons as CEO
Chairman of the Board Marjorie K. Simmons assumes CEO position, making SHW Group the only firm in the AIA Large Firm Roundtable to appoint a woman to this leadership position
| Apr 5, 2011
Zaha Hadid’s civic center design divides California city
Architect Zaha Hadid is in high demand these days, designing projects in Hong Kong, Milan, and Seoul, not to mention the London Aquatics Center, the swimming arena for the 2012 Olympics. But one of the firm’s smaller clients, the city of Elk Grove, Calif., recently conjured far different kinds of aquatic life when members of the City Council and the public chose words like “squid,” “octopus,” and “starfish” to describe the latest renderings for a proposed civic center.
| Apr 5, 2011
Are architects falling behind on BIM?
A study by the National Building Specification arm of RIBA Enterprises showed that 43% of architects and others in the industry had still not heard of BIM, let alone started using it. It also found that of the 13% of respondents who were using BIM only a third thought they would be using it for most of their projects in a year’s time.