Project Description
Sunlight-Adapted Parametric Design: The sculpture’s reflective panels are parametrically arranged to interact dynamically with sunlight. Their angles can be calibrated to optimize light reflection, create dazzling visual effects, or provide shifting patterns of shade throughout the day.
Functional and Adaptable Plaza: The installation transforms the plaza into a versatile space. Its adaptive light-reflecting and shading capabilities create a more comfortable environment, encouraging varied uses and making the historic square a more engaging focal point.
Project Inspiration
OMBRA Pavilion’s kinetic shading system in Venice does not need electronics or motors. For the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice, MVRDV has collaborated with Metadecor, Airshade, and Alumet, among others, to create the SOMBRA pavilion. With its shape inspired by heliodon devices, for the next six months this “ode to the sun” will provide a dynamic shading structure in the European Cultural Centre’s Giardini Marinaressa. The SOMBRA pavilion – its name a portmanteau of the Latin words for sun (sol) and shade (umbra) – serves as a demonstration vehicle for an innovative technology: kinetic building elements that work based exclusively on passive physical principles, without using electronics or motors.
Process & Design:
Process & Design:
“This project explores the intersection of origami mechanics and environmental performance. By manipulating a simple grid into a field of 3D pyramids, we created a self-shading façade that reduces heat gain without mechanical parts, proving that complex geometry can be both aesthetic and functional.”
Renders:
Grasshopper Script:
