Rethinking and designing the key behaviours of architectural responsiveness in the digital age

In the late 1960s the architect Nicholas Negroponte introduced that the physical environment could exhibit reflexive and simulated behaviours, an idea that has since been widely explored. Despite of this wider interest, there is not, however, a systematic approach to understanding architectural responsiveness in the digital age. This paper aims to provide a formal way to facilitate designing smart and interactive artificiality in the built environment. This paper presents a conceptual framework, through exploratory studies on recent architecture, highlighting four key behaviours: (1) tangible interaction, (2) embodied response, (3) ambient simulation, and (4) mixed reality. In addition, two essential enablers, collectiveness and immersion, are proposed to enhance these key behaviours. This framework can be used as a tool to systematically identify and characterise the responsiveness of “responsive architecture”. The creative mixtures of the key behaviours will contribute to the development of unique responsive environments.