Chameleon is a design proposal presented by the Responsive Design Studio as an entry the Shape the Future contest held by Corian. The proposal consists of a responsive, playful sculpture for the waiting area or hallways in children hospitals or doctor’s offices. The sculpture is made from a thermochromically enhanced Corian material which allows the surfaces to change their colour in response to human touch. In addition a novel post-production technique is presented, which enables the creation of complex free-form shapes without the necessity for time- and cost intensive moulds and form work. With this technique, so far unrealized constellations can be built.
Project Team
Hans Sachs
Manuel Kretzer
Carolina Menezes
The core idea behind Chameleon is based on three unique novelties:
Chameleon Surface
Thermochromic leuco pigments will be embedded during the fabrication of the Corian slabs. Thermochromic materials change colour reversibly in response to a change in temperature. They come in a variety of forms often as (microencapsulated) slurries and are used in wide ranging industries and products, yet they have never been applied as solid free-form surfaces.
Mould-free deformation
A novel technique of slicing the material from one side allows the creation of complex curvatures without the necessity of a mould. This means not only an incredible reduction in fabrication and assembly time but especially in cost, since moulds for complex surfaces can usually only used once.
Complex freeform surfaces
The unique production method enables the fabrication of formerly unrealisable shapes and forms. Due to the unnecessity of moulds the material can basically be heated in flat and then formed into shape without the use of vacuum forming.
The proposed production method is based on bended, a “Python for Rhino” based script, which was developed by responsive design studio in 2013. The automated tool creates production data for a CNC milling machine or laser cutter to create curved surfaces with varying curvature directions, angles and radii, based on plane sheet materials.
Form-finding cardboard studies
Cardboard curvature studies
