The two volumes provide an overview of dynamic and adaptive building components in architecture, a field of growing importance in view of the complex demands placed on today's buildings. The focus is on the following challenges: How can the energy demand of buildings be reduced? How can usage possibilities be expanded? How can dynamic movements in buildings be mapped, absorbed and controlled? The spectrum of designs presented ranges from movable elements for the use of solar energy or dynamic light designs to components that can be swivelled, rotated, folded or flapped. The contributors show innovative solutions from leading architects worldwide.

Dynamic components and adaptive elements are becoming increasingly important in contemporary architecture, and not just because of their visual effect. If architects and engineers are engaging more and more with the issue of movement - whether in the form of sun-tracking solar cells, lowerable walls, or intelligently programmed elevators - it's because they are busy exploring responses to three challenges: How can we control and reduce the energy requirement of buildings? How can we expand the range of possible uses? And how can we represent, illustrate, accommodate, and control dynamic movements in buildings? Designers and builders who seek to use kinetic components face technical and design challenges that aren't covered by traditional structural theory. For these users, this book presents the technical tools and constructional solutions that will allow them to implement these movements concretely and deploy them functionally within the domains of of "Energy," "Change of Use," and "Interaction." First it lays out the fundamentals and design principles of kinetics in architecture, technology, art, and nature in a structured manner. In a third section, forty movable elements are shown in action, each on a double page - with specially prepared phase drawings and organized by type of movement, including rotation, sliding, folding, and transformation. The international examples from noted architects range from window mechanisms to solar protection and light redirection systems, movable walls and roofs, and movable civil engineering structures.