Every so often, a project slides across your screen that seems too cool to be truly feasible. But Tyler Short, the architecture student behind this incredible louvre system, says his system’s been worked out to the last mechanical detail. Someone, manufacture this thing!
The system was designed as a solution to what Short describes as a “nearly impossible” problem to solve with traditional, static components: the fact that the sun changes position in the sky. What works to shade you from the morning sun, in other words, won’t work in the afternoon.
Short’s system rotates in three directions: Both laterally, as traditional louvres would, and axially, swinging out to create a deep shade in the afternoon. Here’s his description:
Our solution was a series of vertical shading louvers, that can independently pivot to maximise solar protection, and when the sun reaches an altitude in which vertical louvers would be ineffective, completely rotate upwards to act as a horizontal shading element and light shelf. All of the mechanical components and gear ratios were fully resolved, and the result is a hand or computer-operated system that creates a beautiful undulating form across the facade.
It’s a lovely system, and we can only hope someone in the shading business sees it and makes it a reality. [Vimeo; The Verge]