Dedon “Blades of Grass” Installation for SoHo Flagship
Project Description
German Furniture company, DEDON was looking for an eye-catching and imaginative window display for their SoHo showroom. Arch provided the solution with an innovative robotic window display featuring 30 Arduino-driven servo-motors powering actual seagrass. We used green and upcycled materials including reclaimed barnwood from Pennsylvania along with foliage/floral design. As passers-by walked in front of the window, Kinect-based spatial scanning sensors triggered the grass to move naturally to follow people’s movement as if blown by a gentle breeze. As people walked towards the display, the same sensors triggered the grass to part playfully, allowing passers-by to see into the store.
Project Details
Client DEDON Furniture / Sarkissian Mason
Date May 2011
Skills Foliage Design, Programming, Fabrication, Green Projects, Arduino, Kinect
Project Feature
This experiment in physical interactivity was installed in the windows of Dedon’s flagship US location in Soho. The success of this project hinged on the ability to make the movement of the grass feel completely natural and organic. Servo motors triggers by an electromagnetic motor were used, rather than a stepper motor, and a cantilever arm returned grass to its resting position using gravity. Naturally, the end result exceeded all client expectations and stopped people in their tracks to playfully interact
