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114th Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Annual Meeting Proceedings, Convergence / Divergence: Designing Futures in Architecture and Education

Programmable Knitted Actuators for Social and Interactive Micro-Spaces and Spatial Agency

Annual Meeting Proceedings

Author(s): Ghassan M Alserayhi, Vishal Rohira & Chavi Gupta

Pneumatic Knits is a material system regulated by air, created by combining digitally manufactured knitted fabrics, pneumatic motion, and touch-based sensing. The research project suggests that such systems are more than just material or technical innovations; they are participatory micro-spatial environments that facilitate social interaction, shared agency, and co-creation, especially for neurodiverse users. Based on soft robotics, machine knitting, and sensory design, the work features a workflow that creatively combines knitted constraints, silicone pneumatic tubes, proportional air control, and touch-based sensors. Here, participatory design and interactive environmental structures serve as the backdrop for the research, in which material behavior can be interpreted as social behavior, thus turning pneumatic knits into socially responsive micro-spatial environments.

Volume Editors
Reed Kroloff & Francisco J. Rodríguez-Suárez

ISBN
978-1-944214-52-4