ICC ONLINE | ARCHIVE | 2009 | COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: FUTURE REVISITED

"Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited-Feedback Space" | >Details |

"Brain City Lab" | >Details |

"Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited-Feedback Space" 2008- Since their establishment in 1968, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU presented a number of futuristic "architectural" prototypes of dwellings which are responsive to their inhabitants' sensibilities and activities. The idea for this work originates in the 1969 experiment "Heart Space泡stro Balloon," a version in which a transparent balloon accommodating a single user would translate his or her heartbeat via sensors to synchronized light and sound effects. Later in their 1971 "Feedback Vibration City" they imagined a city which would mutate to reflect the pulse, breath, alpha brainwaves and movements of its inhabitants.
"Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited芳eedback Space" was realized by combining these two previously presented works, and débuted at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2008. In this new configuration two visitors would enter the transparent balloon, which resembles a brain or another internal organ, and would touch the interface with their hands, initiating moving image, lighting on pneumatic screens and sounds triggered in real-time by their heartbeats. The resulting installation is a cloud-like, semi-transparent and reflective floating space. The latest version is on view in this exhibition.

"Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited-Feedback Space" 2008 © Bengt Stiller

"Heart Space-Astro Balloon" 1969 © Erwin Reichmann

"Heart Space-Astro Balloon" 1969 © Lisl Ponger

"Brain City Lab" 2008- This project resumes COOP HIMMELB(L)AU's crucial exploration on rule-based urban design, first started 1987 with a masterplan project for the city of Melun-Sénart near Paris, which applies various new concepts from cutting-edge neuroscientific research to urban planning. This research takes its inspiration from an essay by famous neurologist Wolf SINGER relating the structure of the human brain to the structure of a city.
For its first presentation at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2008, dynamic and fluid computer graphics were projected on a landscape model, superimposing the behavior of active neurons with a simulation of urban growth. Here at the ICC the COOP HIMMELB(L)AU team of architects, urbanists, sociologists and programmers presents its latest research results: Visitors experience through a real-time interactive simulation, visual animations and sounds, how their movements influence the generation of a virtual city. The goal of the project is to integrate the research results into the urban planning disciplines in order to develop new methodologies, as illustrated by the emergent scenarios on view in this exhibition.