The Stratus Project

305, West Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

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The Stratus Project

305, West Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Firm

rvtr

Type

Cultural › Sculpture

YEAR

2011

The Stratus Project is an ongoing body of design research investigating the potential for kinetic, sensing and environment-responsive interior envelope systems. The research emerges from a consideration of our attunement to the soft systems of architecture – light, thermal gradients, air quality and noise – to develop and prototype envelopes that not only perform to affect these atmospheres, but also to promote continual information and material exchange, and eventually dialogue, between occupant and atmosphere. It deploys a distributed approach to structural, mechanical and communications systems design and delivery, where localized response to demand is prioritized. The project works to reclaim the environmentally performative elements of architecture – in this case, specifically, interior mechanical delivery and interface systems – to within the purview of the discipline, as territories of material, formal, technological and experiential innovation and exploration. The Stratus Project is funded through a University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning 2010 Research Through Making Grant, University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research 2010 Small Projects Grant and a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada 2011 Research Creation Grant.