Ancient textiles and reliefs have played a significant role in shaping the social, economic, and religious structures of communities across the globe. Iconic-indigenous clothing and carvings are imbued with unique designs and patterns. Some are believed to have magical powers and are designed to carry specific meanings and wishes. As storytelling media, these patterns, symbols, and experiences have brought together  a sense of community, identity, and self-expression. By drawing inspiration from the artistry and construction techniques used in traditional textiles, as well as the notion of a pavilion or pagoda serving as a communal space, we aim to infuse a new perspective of technical textiles by fusing novel materials, sensing technologies, and digital fabrication processes to build an architectural skin and structure in the form of an interactive textile pavilion.

The Living Knitwork Pavilion is a customized and modular textile shade structure (dodecagonal pyramid: 19.6ft high and 26ft wide) consisting of 3D-knitted optically and electrically-active yarns that sense activities and dynamically change color and light up through the day and night. The functional yarns, intricately embedded within the twelve petals of the knitwork are able to detect physical interactions through an array of electric-field and resistive-based proxemic, touch, and strain sensors and drive an immersive lighting network in real-time. During sunny days, hidden patterns of humans, nature, flora-fauna, and synthetic beings inspired by our history and the future worlds are revealed through photochromism. The pavilion, working as a shade structure by day and responsive lantern by night, serves as a communal place. Our presence, movements, and environmental changes constantly contribute toward the entire glow, visual effects, and ambiance of the space, as they are reprojected onto the pavilion as living memories, fostering and amplifying moments of discovery, reflection, and connectedness. 

The central structure of the pavilion is composed of an asymptotic gridshell, a lattice network of timber elements designed to optimize structural integrity while minimizing material usage.  By tailoring the curves in the design, the gridshell organic forms seamlessly blend with the knitwork, amplifying a sense of fluidity and harmony to the entire pavilion. The antennas seamlessly integrated within the 12 knitworks receive an electrical field constantly sent by a central transmitter pole and drive an immersive lighting network in real-time. Our ultimate goal is to create a dynamic, responsive, and immersive space that will take the audience into a storytelling  journey by seamlessly integrating sensing, computation, and interactivity into the knitwork. The pavilion showcases a creative interplay between art, architecture, and technology, evoking our relationship with nature and the built environments through augmented textiles as media for artistic expression, mediation, and protection. 

The Living Knitwork Pavilion is a multi-disciplinary, community effort by researchers across Media Lab and MIT, including Irmandy Wicaksono (Responsive Environments), Alfonso Parra Rubio (Center for Bits and Atoms), Gabriela Advincula (City Science),  Sam Chin (Responsive Environments), Judy Chichoka (MIT Architecture), Nicole Bakker (Center for Bits and Atoms), and Tongge Yu (Mechanical Engineering).