'Smart Windows' By Simon Heijdens Are Actually Unbelievably Cool

'Smart Windows' Are Just The Most Beautiful Thing

Everything is 'smart' these days - phones, watches, even water (ahem).

So the fact there is such a thing as 'smart windows' might not be that surprising.

What is surprising is just how unbelievably cool they are. They're the work of Simon Heijdens, who is a London-based Dutch designer and artist. The windows comprise 140 square metres of glass cut up into triangles, each of which can adjust its level of transparency based on sunlight and wind.

The result is a wall of panels which constantly move and shift around you, based on the conditions outside.

It's on view at the Now Gallery in Greenwich, London (19 September–19 December 2014), and is well worth the visit.

Of his creation, Heijdens says:

"A cellular glass facade that filters natural sunlight into a moving kaleidoscope of light and shadow, directly choreographed by the elements passing outside, to restore the unplanned natural timeline of the outdoors to the interior of the building.

The 140 m2 responsive glass curve transfuses light varyingly throughout the day, from sharp in the morning to ambient in the afternoon. Wind gusts that pass the building outside directly affect the cells in the glass to turn from opaque to clear, thus passing or blocking sunlight to create a dimensional projection of light and shadow onto the floors and walls of the interior space. As the patterns of wind and the quality of light are constantly changing throughout the day, the interior space regains the unplanned character of the outdoors. At night, the principle is inverted, and interior light is filtered to the outside and projects the kaleidoscopic pattern onto the surrounding pavement."

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