The built environment is becoming “kindled.”
Electronic ink, is almost exclusively associated with hand-held digital reading devices like Amazon’s Kindle tablet. However, the technology's inherent scalability reveals intriguing possibilities in architecture and interior design. E-ink and its material interface of electronic paper offer an alternative strategy to traditional analog and digital displays. As a digital interface, e-ink is inherently changeable like a digital screen but requires up to 99 percent less energy than such displays.
One reason for this tiny carbon footprint is that the display reflects ambient light rather than emitting it, so it doesn’t need to fight against sunlight or bright interior light to be visible. Another reason is that a constant power supply is not required to maintain an image. In dim contexts, integral backlighting can provide sufficient illumination for legibility.
As e-ink technology advances, its size limitations increase. Today’s e-ink displays are available in sizes up to 42 inches, and multiple displays may be combined to create larger surfaces. E-paper’s intrinsic light weight also makes it suitable for various applications, including interior and exterior surface-mounted displays.
E-paper technology offers significant potential for communications, wayfinding, public art, and immersive environments. Nearly a decade ago, Hsinchu, Taiwan-based E-Ink Holdings launched E Ink Prism, a bi-chromatic modular tile subdivided into individual, irregularly shaped pixels. These programmable tiles were intentionally lo-fi, ideal for abstract, pattern-changing wall art. However, the technology has since become capable of much more intricate designs. Recent novelties include the world’s first color-changing guitar, color-changing handbags, and dynamic automobile interiors. Unsurprisingly, signage is a primary application, and advances in multicolor capabilities make e-ink increasingly competitive with digital signage.
Two recent building projects utilize e-paper components in their facades. DAZZLE adorns a rental car center at San Diego International Airport, transforming the parking structure into the world’s largest e-Paper media facade, according to E ink Partners and the digital media office Ueberall International. The design is inspired by “razzle dazzle” camouflage, a naval vessel painting strategy during World War I intended to mislead the enemy regarding a ship’s speed and direction. DAZZLE arrays 2,000 individual e-ink tiles across the facade in varying intervals, creating an ever-changing surface that recalls the visually captivating qualities of these 20th-century warships.
More recently, the “Light Dynamic Wave” installation by Nooka Art at the Taipei Dome incorporates e-paper panels within a ribbon window that traces a sweeping, curved arc. The bichromatic modules display simple geometric figures in minimal black and white tones. During games, activities on the field are translated into changing abstract patterns in the facade, which are enhanced by synchronized sounds. A total of 202 meters of e-paper are used in the installation.
Like any technology, e-paper has limitations. Those familiar with electronic readers know that refresh rates are much slower than conventional digital displays, making videos and animations appear choppy and difficult to watch. Until recently, e-paper was also limited to black-and-white or bichromatic rendering, although multicolor capability is progressing rapidly.
Furthermore, display technologies in the built environment have the potential to be a nuisance, adding visual noise and stimulation that may be unwelcome or distracting. Billboards are not beloved artifacts in the constructed landscape, so color-changing versions could be even less popular. Thus, as with any art or design opportunity, the challenge is to utilize the technology in effective, informative, and inspirational ways.
Today, architects, designers, and media artists have the rare opportunity to reconsider how buildings communicate. Environmental wayfinding has the potential to be entirely transformed by interactive, user-aware e-ink surfaces that assist building occupants with directions. Signage can be both informative and artistic. Public art can become immersive and omnipresent in meaningful ways, uplifting users’ consciousness within highly curated atmospheres. In the coming years, architecture may no longer be considered a static, inflexible container but an adaptable, responsive platform for ever-changing user experiences.
