Lincoln University brought an updated version of their showstopping design from RHS Chelsea in 2013 The Innovative design brings social media technology to GardenUp. The articulated steel panels on the wall are driven by tweets from a website!

University of Lincoln, Lincoln School of Architecture – Social Media Garden

The University of Lincoln’s show garden entry into this years Garden Up event in Sheffield is based upon a research project within the University’s Schools of Architecture and Computer Science that is exploring the idea/question, ‘is architecture able to reflect and map human emotions’, the garden is conceived as an articulating landscape which sits vertically and horizontally, the movements within this landscape simultaneously reveal what the landscape covers and remap the landscape itself. The control mechanism for this is a computer application that monitors Twitter for information defined by us, for example reactions to the Garden Up Show, it then translates this information into movements of the garden’s mechanical landscape.

The garden prompts several important questions as to how we wish to proceed with the design of ‘smart buildings’. It essentially points to a future in which buildings could modify themselves in response to monitoring our emotional state via social media, so if we feel like wearing a big cozy jumper and sipping a cup of boiling hot soup, it will turn the temperature down and open a window. Alternatively, or perhaps in parallel, buildings may begin to reflect the mood of a populace by changing colour or shape, constantly remapping our perception of our urban environment, façades becoming animated, reflective and mobile in response to communal desires and emotions.

Team

Richard M Wright Architect

Barbara Griffin Architect

Dr Duncan Rowland computer scientist

Samantha Snowden horticulturist