TECHNORAMA FACADE Ned Kahn
In 2002 Ned Kahn worked with the staff of Technorama, the Swiss Science Center, and the institution’s architectural office of Durig and Rami to create a six-story facade for the building. The facade comprises thousands of aluminum panels, set in motion by air currents to reveal the complex patterns of turbulence in the wind. For the installation, the entire 220-foot-long (67.1 m) facade of the museum was covered with eighty thousand wind-animated panels. The brushed-aluminum surface of the panels reflects light and color from the sky and the surrounding buildings. As a whole, the facade 28
INTERACTIVE ARCHITECTURE
is the focal point of the large urban plaza in front of the museum. Each moving element is a three-inch (7.6 cm) square of thin aluminum with a low-friction plastic bearing pressed into the top edge. These bearings ride on stainless-steel axles, held by an aluminum framework to the structural beams of the building. Each element responds uniquely to the wind’s forces, but the entire facade displays complex, coordinated movements that coalesce into a rendering of the larger-scale patterns and textures of its passing. The artwork has survived extreme windstorms, ice storms, and more than a decade of constant
above and opposite, top: Views of center with facade in motion