Designing elastic transformable structures: Towards soft responsive architecture

This paper discusses the issues of designing and building environment involving spatial conditions that can be physically reconfigured to meet changing needs. To achieve this architectural vision, most current research focuses on the kinetic, mechanical systems and physical control mechanisms for actuation and structural transformation. Instead of the 'hard' mechanical joints and components, there is an unexplored 'soft' approach using lightweight elastic composite materials for designing responsive architectural skins and structures.