Interaction with the outside of a building isn't something that happens often, unless the passerby takes a picture or points out the design to someone else. George Zisiadis wants to change that with his new design for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.
His proposed design intends to place a 10-foot pinwheel on the side of the building that is connected to tubes in the plaza below. If a person blows in the tube, the pinwheel will start spinning. Zisiadis says that he wants the exterior to have some of the interactive elements that are featured inside the museum.
"They want people to engage with their art in a very hands-on way, which I find very empowering and inspiring," Zisiadis told Fast Company. "I wanted to extend this idea to the physical structure of the building itself.”
He wants to keep the mechanism driving the pinwheel mysterious in order to make the experience more fun for visitors, but it's pretty simple. When someone blows into the tube, hidden microphones pick up the sound and connected motors then make the pinwheel spin.
Zisiadis hopes that his design will encourage people to interact with the whole building and transform the way they perceive public space.
Related Stories
Industry Research | Jan 23, 2024
Leading economists forecast 4% growth in construction spending for nonresidential buildings in 2024
Spending on nonresidential buildings will see a modest 4% increase in 2024, after increasing by more than 20% last year according to The American Institute of Architects’ latest Consensus Construction Forecast. The pace will slow to just over 1% growth in 2025, a marked difference from the strong performance in 2023.
Giants 400 | Jan 23, 2024
Top 110 Medical Office Building Architecture Firms for 2023
SmithGroup, CannonDesign, E4H Environments for Health Architecture, and Perkins Eastman top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest medical office building architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Jan 22, 2024
Top 100 Outpatient Facility Architecture Firms for 2023
HDR, CannonDesign, Stantec, Perkins&Will, and ZGF top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest outpatient facility architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes design revenue for work related to outpatient medical buildings, including cancer centers, heart centers, urgent care facilities, and other medical centers.
Construction Costs | Jan 22, 2024
Construction material prices continue to normalize despite ongoing challenges
Gordian’s most recent Quarterly Construction Cost Insights Report for Q4 2023 describes an industry still attempting to recover from the impact of COVID. This was complicated by inflation, weather, and geopolitical factors that resulted in widespread pricing adjustments throughout the construction materials industries.
Transit Facilities | Jan 22, 2024
Top 40 Transit Facility Architecture Firms for 2023
Perkins&Will, HDR, Gensler, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and HNTB top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest transit facility architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes design revenue for work related to bus terminals, rail terminals, and transit stations.
Hotel Facilities | Jan 22, 2024
U.S. hotel construction is booming, with a record-high 5,964 projects in the pipeline
The hotel construction pipeline hit record project counts at Q4, with the addition of 260 projects and 21,287 rooms over last quarter, according to Lodging Econometrics.
Modular Building | Jan 19, 2024
Virginia is first state to adopt ICC/MBI offsite construction standards
Virginia recently became the first state to adopt International Code Council/Modular Building Institute off-site construction standards.
Office Buildings | Jan 19, 2024
How to strengthen office design as employees return to work
Adam James, AIA, Senior Architect, Design Collaborative, shares office design tips for the increasingly dynamic workplace.
Modular Building | Jan 19, 2024
Building with shipping containers not as eco-friendly as it seems
With millions of shipping containers lying empty at ports around the world, it may seem like repurposing them to construct buildings would be a clear environmental winner. The reality of building with shipping containers is complicated, though, and in many cases isn’t a net-positive for the environment, critics charge, according to a report by NPR's Chloe Veltman.
Adaptive Reuse | Jan 18, 2024
Coca-Cola packaging warehouse transformed into mixed-use complex
The 250,000-sf structure is located along a now defunct railroad line that forms the footprint for the city’s multi-phase Beltline pedestrian/bike path that will eventually loop around the city.
