Environment-Responsive Materials as Dynamic Markers for Architectural Augmented Reality Applications

With growing knowledge of our environmental obligations, architects must explore new design techniques and find alternative strategies to express environmental aspects in architecture. Augmented Reality (AR) is a digital technology that allows us to enhance a real data feed with digital data virtually and is becoming ever more ubiquitous. It is widely used in industrial environments and is still novel in architecture, and has only recently gained popularity. The use of marker-based AR in dynamic, non-standardised architectural spaces is limited. Nevertheless, the technology can potentially help visualise thermal conditions invisible to the human eye. The paper presents a detailed state-of-the-art review of AR and thermochromic materials in architecture. From this, it derives a series of relationships between the two technologies. They are explored through design experiments and prototyping. The research reconsiders digital design parameters in this context, yet, the scalability of results remains a future task.