Lumen is a socially and environmentally responsive structure that adapts to bodies, heat, and sunlight. It coalesces a series of tubular structures with a canopy of textile cells made of photo-luminescent and solar-active yarns that absorb, collect, and deliver light. Extending these formations, groups of spool-shaped recycled chairs have been adapted using robotically woven hydro-chromic materials that reveal messages on their surfaces and through their assemblies in the courtyard. By day, Lumen offers respite from the summer heat, immersing participants in ground clouds of cooling mist; by night, Lumen is knitted light, bathing visitors in the glow of its luminescence.

As part of a complex design process, Lumen engages material behaviors and processes that are enmeshed with diverse programs and personal interaction at various scales. Deploying geometries that articulate the potentials of matter, its design parameters further challenge conventional notions of structure and typology. As with cell networks, the material constructions used in the enveloping columns and canopy emulate natural phenomena in which the flow of forces is activated through connectivity. Lumen undertakes rigorous interdisciplinary experimentation to produce a multisensory environment that inspires collective play as the spaces and their materiality transform throughout the day and night.