In his lecture, Kemp gives a brief historic overview of past kinetic architectural precedents, focusses on current trends in automation and new ways of building transformable robots, as well as building and designing real time updatable systems.

In contrast to Hal 9000 as an example of a computer which has turned against the humans in Kubrick’s reality and gained control of the spaceship, the computable architectural space remains at the service of the human inhabitant, allowing him to, shift all the modular parts of the building according to his needs, e.g. turn the living and dining room into a large space to host a party. Another example is an interactive sink which adjusts its height according to the person approaching it.

Kemp, a graduate of the Southern California Institute of Architecture has studied and immersed himself in the various interactive and computable technologies and dedicated his final thesis to experimenting with hexagonal elements whose movements can be programmed to form different shapes and spatial structures. It is the hexagonal shape which fits the needs for a variable modular element particularly well, as it allows for a large variety of combinations.

Incorporating all available technologies, the possibilities for revolutionizing the modern way of living and experiencing architecture seem infinite, but one last question remains. What if the reprogammable space, reprograms itself to become another Hal 9000 and decides to close in on you? A somewhat uncomfortable thought, but visionary thinking forbids irrelevant doubts of this sort, …right?

Reprogrammable Space: Building Updatable Spatial Systems
Date: November 7th, 2006
Place: Material & Applications Gallery
Address: 1619 Silverlake Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
https://www.emanate.org