The gardens of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum in London were awesomely transformed with the installation of the Elytra Filament Pavilion (EFP), which was commissioned from pioneering architects and engineers at University of Stuttgart, Germany.
The Pavilion design is inspired by lightweight construction principles found in nature representing the filament structures of the forewing shells of flying beetles known as elytra. The construction is therefore made of glass and carbon fiber. The EFP’s unique and aesthetic qualities constitutes a dynamic space and an evolving structure that responds, in real-time, to patterns of inhabitation through a network of sensors embedded in the canopy fibers. FBGS’s DTG® sensing system monitors the strategically placed strain and temperature optical fiber sensors, within the robotically woven structure, and continuously feeds the data along other thermal imaging sensors to the system’s brain to update the status of the EFP’s inhibitors. The optical fibers, which are seamlessly combined with the woven glass, enable the monitoring of structural forces and the collection of data of the micro-climate under the canopy.
The museum is open for public from May 18th – Nov 6th, 2016 and visiting the exhibition is free of charge.
For more information on the project and the museum visiting information, please click here.
Click here to view the sensor maps of the canopy and data collected so far.
