System of Interconnection

“How might a tech-enabled urban living space become a dynamic, phenomena-inspired ecosystem responsive to triggers co-generated by its inhabitants and the spatial and temporal qualities of its built environment?”

‘Hey Siri, turn on the living room light’ — a phrase some might already use regularly to control smart lighting objects in their homes — is on a trajectory to become a reality for millions of households across the globe in the coming decades. This trend towards disembodiment, along with alienation in the urban spaces, poses dire threats to embodied engagement and care toward the world around us. This technologically enabled living space of the near future – the spatial interface of dwelling, is in urgent need of a new approach to interactions.

Concept Statement

System of Interconnection (SoI) is a responsive and contextual lighting system that not only highlights the invisible processes of the dwelling environment but also makes the connection between the inhabitants themselves and the built environment an embodied experience. By translating the spatio-temporality of inhabitants and their environments through data-mapped lighting elements, the living space becomes a dynamic visual environment where inhabitants co-create the lightscape through dialogues of cohabitation.

Until we shine a new light on urban living spaces by creating designs that re-prioritize the body-centric, process-oriented reality, we risk perpetuating this epidemic of alienation. It is the symptom of the declining recognition that the natural world and the human world are deeply intertwined—we cannot live without one or the other.