Media:new materiality?

Materiality in architecture is the concept of, or applied use of various materials or substances in the medium of building

In the age of interaction and media, new materials keep appearing in the field of architecture. But could we say that interaction or media themselves represent the new materiality of architecture?

Development in display technology and building materials are leading to new forms of hybrid architecture that breakaway from existing conceptions of surface, structure, lighting and moving imagery. Therefore media facades are starting to integrate in an architectural and urban context.
The first example of interactive architecture with media facades was the building of Galleria West Shopping Center in Seoul, Korea, designed in 2002 by UN Studio architects in assosiation with Arup Lighting. The building has become the latest, intriguing style icon in the city and a world first for electronic facade technology.



Together UN Studio and Arup Lighting, have created a new facade that projects a lively, ever changing surface, with a total of 4330 glass discs mounted on the existing concrete skin of the building, and transformed the Galleria into a continuously changing, light-reactive and computer-programmable radiant surface.
The chameleon-like facade reflects the details of natural light on opalescent, dichroic glass discs during the day. At night the discs are individually backlit and controlled by a computer program to create brilliant and unique color schemes all aver the building-each disc acting like a big pixel on a giant screen.
4330 discs, each 850mm in diameter, make up the entire facade of the mall. They can be programmed to show outstanding displays in every imaginable shade. At other times the building can even become a giant billboard, its pixels feeding text or images around the entire external structure.
Although the technology is not new, its application on such a big scale makes it exceptional. The fact that it can interface with video and film makes it a unique hybrid project.

Advertising billboards, interactive facades and new technologies create a new field in architectural design and materiality and in a way (re-)define architecture and urban space as we know it. The integration of media facades with architectural structures produces a new type of architecture-media architecture-which informs not only the building but also urban space.