Faculty Members Thün, Velikov, and McGee awarded Architizer A+ Award for ‘Resonant Chamber’ in Architecture + Sound Category

Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün, Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov and FabLab Director and Lecturer Wes McGee were awarded both the Jury Award and Popular Choice Award in the first annual Architizer A+ Award Program in the Sound + Architecture Category for their project ‘Resonant Chamber.’

Resonant Chamber is an interior envelope system that deploys the physical principles of rigid origami to transform the acoustic environment through dynamic spatial, material and electro-acoustic technologies. The project aims to develop a ‘soundsphere’ able to adjust its physical properties and spatial configuration in response to changing sonic conditions, altering the sound of a space during performance and creating an instrument at the scale of architecture, flexible enough that it might be capable of being played. The project has been developed through three streams of iterative research and development in both computational testing and full-scale prototype installation: Dynamic Surface Geometries; Performative Material Systems; and Variable Actuation and Response.

2013 is the inaugural instantiation of the Architizer A+ Award competition, an international architectural award program with 50+ categories and over 200 distinguished jurors. Winners are selected for recognition based on excellence in the following criteria: Form, Function, Innovation, Intent and Reality.

The Resonant Chamber project was developed in partnership with ARUP Acoustics with seed funding support through a 2011 Taubman College Research Through Making Grant, support from the U-M Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, a 2012 Small Projects Grant from the U-M Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR).

For more on the A+ Awards click here

For more information on the Resonant Chamber Project click here