The concept behind Living City is that a building-through a variety of sensors-can gather information about air quality, temperature, and other environmental factors, and then wirelessly share that information with other buildings on a dedicated network.
A lightweight, transparent building skin has gill-like openings that can close or open in response to the air quality of the surrounding environment, effectively allowing the building to breathe.
A mockup shows how the skin would appear in application, and contrasts alternating gilled panels with solid ones.
A control board was designed specifically to connect input data from the sensor network to the façade, and to control the pin mechanism that opens and closes the gills to permit or prevent airflow.
A sensor sits on the exterior window ledge gathering environmental air quality data while another sensor, uncovered, sits inside to monitor the interior air quality. The data are all routed to a software program that the team intends to publish so that others can create similar systems in other cities.
Depending on the location and planned duration of deployment, the input nodes or sensors have larger or smaller batteries and casings. This smaller version shows a sensor module connected to a radio module that transmits the collected data to computers and output nodes.
