Living Light by David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang (aka “The Living“) is a permanent outdoor pavilion in the heart of Seoul with a dynamic skin that glows and blinks in response to both data about air quality and public interest in the environment. The skin of the pavilion is a giant map of Seoul with the 27 neighborhood (gu) boundaries redrawn based on existing air quality sensors of the Korean Ministry of Environment—each shape in this new map encloses the air closest to one of the sensors. Then the map illuminates to become an interactive, environmental building facade. Citizens can enter the pavilion or view it from nearby streets and buildings, and they can text message the building and it will text them back.

This structure in a public park not only provides a canopy and a tactile enclosure, it also suggests that a building facade itself can become a new kind of public space. It can offer important real-time information about our shared resources and our collective concerns. The Living are also showing their work at the current Toward the Sentient City exhibition in New York. See previous post for more details.



Credits:

Sponsored by City Gallery | Hosted by World Cup Park | In Association with the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Air Quality Data: Air Korea of the Korean Ministry of Environment
Interactivity programming: Project Randomwalks
Construction Management: BM I&A
Structural Engineer: The Kujo
Optimization programming: Buro Happold New York, Ian Keough, John Locke, Daniel Kidd
Frame Construction: Suam RnC
Lighting Consultation: LED Korea
Fabrication Consultation: aa64
Fabrication: Woojin Laser, Acryl Choika
Fabrication sponsorship: Avery Digital Fabrication Lab at Columbia University

Air connects all the whole planet without regard to cultural or national boundaries.



The city has several existing interfaces to real-time air quality data.



Our project aims to combine real-time data about the environment with dynamic lighting to create an interactive facade of the future.



Via Nait5