Janary–August 2019
Cambridge, Canada
For Philip Beesley Architect Inc. &
Living Architecture Systems Group
Directed by Philip Beesley
In collaboration with LASG studio team
Meander is an immersive testbed environment constructed within a historic warehouse building at the centre of a high-rise development in Cambridge, Canada. The mesh-work scaffolds which comprise the testbed are organized as a series of species within an artificial ecosystem, gently flexing and responding to the movement of viewers. Similar to natural environments such as rivers and clouds, large groups of parts pass physical impulses and data signals back and forth, enabling the entire environment to work as an interconnected whole.
The geometric structures seen in Meander use interlinking, flexible lattices that behave like textiles and natural shell structures. Overlapping strands of materials balance each other within doubly-curved conical stem-shaped forms. The skeletal forms create strong inner and outer shells much in the same way that natural bone structures are formed. The innovations in Meander suggest ways of making adaptive, sensitive buildings of the future.