Architecture team wins research award

December 4, 2019
Categories: Research Tags: Alumni, College of Arts + Architecture, College of Computing and Informatics, Research, Scholarship and Academic Life

Assistant Professor of Architecture Rachel Dickey and School of Architecture alumni Ali Karduni ’17 M.S./M.Arch. and Noushin Radnia ’18 M.S./M.Arch. have received a 2020 Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) Research Incentive Award for their proposal, “Reconfigurable Space: Kinematic Environments Controlled with Computer Vision.”

ARCC is an international association of architectural research centers founded in 1976. The highly competitive Research Incentive Award aims to promote and support architectural research in ARCC member schools. Each year, ARCC grants the $5,000 awards to two projects.

“Reconfigurable Space: Kinematic Environments Controlled with Computer Vision” is a three-part research effort to explore how technologies are integrated into the built environment through the development of a robotic architecture produced from large-scale deployable surfaces that can change their size and shape based on human activity.

The research within the scope of the ARCC Research Incentive Award will focus on the first of the three phases: the physical design and prototyping of the responsive architectural elements. Future phases include the design and testing of the computer vision sensing and control systems and user testing to study the impact of reconfigurable environments on occupants.

“Reconfigurable Space” continues Dickey’s investigations into how technology affects the way people perceive and occupy space. Her 2018 interactive installation, “Air Hugs,” filled Storrs Gallery with 12-foot-long Mylar balloons that hung from the ceiling and “breathed” in response to gallery visitors. Read more about Dickey and her research in this Faculty Spotlight.

Co-investigators Karduni and Radnia both received dual Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Information Technology degrees from UNC Charlotte and now teach in the School of Architecture. Karduni, a Ph.D. candidate in Computing and Information Systems, is an instructor; Radnia is a post-graduate teaching fellow.

Photo, left to right, Rachel Dickey, Ali Karduni and Noushin Radnia.