an article about the innovative design of dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde

1. Lotus 7.0
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2. After completing a post-graduate course at the Berlage Institute’s Laboratory
of Architecture in Rotterdam, Holland, Daan Roosegaarde (born 1979) opened
his own laboratory of ‘techno poetry’, a connection between ideology and
technology. An unusual theme for an architect that explores the dynamic
relations between architectural space, human behaviour, and technology.
Using technology for poetry
by Damiano Fossati
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3. “We live in a world that is shifting from ana-
logical to digital, and technology plays a fundamental
role in shaping our reality… from how fast our modem
is to how many friends we have on Facebook,” he says.
His main office is in Rotterdam but with the growing
interest in his projects he recently opened a new office
in Shanghai City. His works, such as Dune and Intimacy,
are tactile high-tech environments in which viewer and
space become one. These have been the focus of exhibi-
tions at the Tate Modern and the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London, and the National Museum in Tokyo.
He talks about analogical environment, digital and
sociological approach, the poetic and the magical, and
how things are interacting with us. As an architect and
artist he developed several projects that aim to change
and create environments that modify according to our
behaviour as well as guiding our movement and route.
Dune 4.00 is an interactive modular landscape.
This hybrid nature and technology consists of large
amounts of fibres which brighten according to the
sounds and motion of passing visitors. The most recent
version is filled with hundreds of interactive lights and
sounds. Dune investigates nature in a futuristic relation
with human space by means of looking, walking and
interacting.
It is a landscape design created with a series of steel
and fibre sticks so that all the installation is connected
with microphones, speakers, software and other media
giving a hybrid nature co-existing with natural habitat.
Once you pass near and through this modular system,
LED lights start to glow and make sounds both sensing
the activity of the humans nearby, and at the same time
showing the path for people to follow.
The installation has been placed inside museums
and churches, the biggest one having been installed
alongside the Maas River in Rotterdam partially covering
the pavement and footpath – in the evening it reveals
its presence with sounds and lights, following you and
at the same time lighting up your way.
Roosegaarde’s motto is ‘Using technology for
poetry’ and as he explained in a public lecture in
Rotterdam: “I’m mainly interested in why and how
technology is changing our reality and the aim is about
making people aware of their body and aware of the
space that they are living in.”
Flow 5.0 is a smart wall composed of hundreds of
ventilators that interact with passing visitors. By walking
and interacting with its surface, the visitor triggers
the emergence of an illusive landscape created out
of transparent fields and artificial winds. “Measuring
several metres, the most recent version of Flow
heightens the visitor’s consciousness of him or herself
as a collective body, becoming one with space and
technology,” he says.
The installation called Lotus at the moment is still an
artistic appliance but it shouldn’t be difficult to apply it
in interior design. It’s an exposition wall measuring 400
x 50 x 200 cm, built up from smart foils of aluminium
and lenses. The name Lotus came from the flower.
“Lotus 7.0 is a living wall which folds and opens in
response to human behaviour. As you walk past Lotus,
hundreds of pieces of aluminium foil unfold themselves
in an organic way, generating transparent voids between
private and public, inner and outer vision. Via Lotus,
physical walls are made immaterial, giving way to a
poetic morphing of space and people,” Daan explains.
“When you stand close by, a sensor notices your pres-
ence and turns on a light that heats the external foils.
The foils open up. When nobody is there, the light goes
out, and the foils retract to their original position.”
The seemingly magical opening is a kind of ‘Organic
technology’, unveiling the exterior and giving you the
opportunity to see through the ‘curtain’.
The Sustainabledancefloor (2008) is an interactive
surface which generates electricity through the act
Flow 5.0. City Hall, the Hague
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4. Studio Dance Floor
Dune 4.2
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5. of dancing. The harvested energy creates
a sensual and interactive environment in
which dancers are engaged with the sustainable
experience.
Liquid space 6.1 (2009) is a public, interactive
artwork placed on the island of Terschelling NL for
Atelier Oerol.
Its ambient location in the heart of a forest allowed
this site-specific version of Liquidspace to establish an
almost otherworldly connection with visitors,
creating a futuristic merge of humans, technology
and landscape.
Intimacy (2010-11) is a fashion project
about the relation between intimacy and
technology. Its high-tech garments ‘Intimacy
White’ and ‘Intimacy Black’ are made out of
opaque smart e-foils which become increas-
ingly transparent when they come into close
contact with people. Social interaction
thus determines the garments’ level
of transparency, creating a sensual
play of disclosure. n
Intimacy White
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