MUURmelaar wins Media Architecture Award in Animated Architecture

MUURmelaar is an architectural facade in Leuven, Belgium, that translates the physical behavior of passers-by into a dynamic soundscape of intriguing sounds and rhythms. The concept behind MUURmelaar is deeply grounded in architectural argumentation, both in its physical manifestation and actuation, as well as in the reasoning behind the interactive features.

Last week MUURmelaar won the 2018 Media Architecture Awards in the category “Animated Architecture”. Under Animated Architecture, the jury understood projects demonstrating creative media facades solutions. Facades of buildings are increasingly animated by integrated light sources. Designers are focusing more and more on the perception of the building. The flexibility of content is rather limited due to resolution, colour and shape of the pixels. In most cases the pixels are highly customised and present a creative challenge to the project.

RxD alumnus dr. Niels Wouters represented our research group RxD  and accepted the award on our behalf. The permanent interactive architecture installation was realized by a close collaboration between the research group Research[x]Design and the architectural office DMOA. Future research will explore how interactive architecture can influence its environment in purposeful ways.