ABSTRACT

This chapter is focused on building skins and enclosure systems that have been designed to respond, adapt, change, and come to life. How architectural design integrates and reconciles the digital lies at the crux of the discussion, and in our contemporary context it is often best defined through reciprocal innovation. Performative building skins and enclosure systems are becoming an inevitable and completely integral part of how we will make our buildings in the future. In this chapter, three principal factors are examined. First, that “performative” will be thought of as a very inclusive term; second, that the technology has only relatively recently evolved to the extent that we can really explore this area of design; last, although the futures of such technologically ensnared areas of design are almost impossible to predict, we can rest assured that current development will most certainly serve as an evolving catalyst for what is to come.