Matter made magic

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF PROGRAMMABLE MATERIALS. FROM SELF-ASSEMBLING STRUCTURES TO FUTURISTIC FABRICS, TAKE A PEEK AT THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME...

- HAYLEY BENNETT

ALGORITHMIC ART 

Nature takes advantage of the way that wood responds to its environment. We see this when a pine cone falls from a tree and its scales begin to peel open as it dries out, allowing it to release its seeds. It's a result of the wood's hygroscopicity - its ability to take up and release moisture and the predictable change in shape that it undergoes when this happens.

But such shape-shifting behaviour can also be harnessed by humans. Based on an in-depth understanding of how the moisture content and grain direction of wood affects its shape, German architects programmed this 'climate-responsive' wooden exhibit to open the bud-like structures on its surface in response to rising humidity levels.

The humidity inside its glass housing at the Centre Pompidou art museum in Paris, is tuned to reflect outdoor conditions, so the installation acts as a virtual connection to the city outside.

"The model opens and closes in response to climate changes with absolutely no need for any technical equipment or energy," says Professor Achim Menges, director of the University of Stuttgart's Institute for Computational Design and Construction. "Here, the natural material itself is the machine."

MAGNETIC MANOEUVRES

Stuff that sticks together in a preordained way could help with many self-assembly tasks here on Earth but in space, it could be really useful. As PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Martin Nisser (pictured below, centre), explains, "Applications could range from assembling structures from constituent parts in orbit, to helping with docking manoeuvres, to selectively bonding objects like tools to a spacecraft's interior walls."