Case Study: Bass Biology Building
Named after Anne T. & Robert M. Bass, the motivation for this project was to house all sciences (chemistry, computer science, statistics, and engineering) under one roof. By encouraging social interactions among scientists and students of various disciplines, the goal of this new construction was to gain new insights and perspectives into the building blocks of life.
Stanford’s vision was to construct a highly interactive digital element within its new medical center expansion. They tasked the project team to develop a way to communicate stories about science in a non-literal, artistic format. This design concept was referred to as “Morphogenesis,” which is a scientific theory that describes how spots and stripes manifest in nature.
The “Morphogenesis” concept materialized into a unique person-to-building interaction with a large digital display that is mounted on the walls of the glass walkways on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the Bass Biology Building. This large screen is controlled by a set of touch-sensitive interfaces that are located on the exterior breezeway walls on the ground level. The touchscreens function as a video synthesizer that allows users to control every parameter of a six-layered interactive Turing pattern. The resulting pattern is simultaneously displayed on the 32-foot tall Mediamesh® transparent media façade provided by GKD Metal Fabrics.
A critical element of the project was specifying a transparent media façade that could span such a large area, sync video from the touchscreens, and also be engineered to meet the stringent seismic codes of the Bay Area. GKD Mediamesh® is uniquely positioned to satisfy these requirements via woven stainless steel mesh panels with interwoven, programmable LEDs.
Suitable for oversized applications, Mediamesh® can span four times the surface area of traditional media displays, and with up to 80% less electricity consumption. Further, with up to 60% open area, Mediamesh® also deploys enough transparency for natural daylighting, ventilation, and retaining sightlines.
By utilizing the touch-sensitive sensors in conjunction with the Mediamesh® digital façade, the design team created an immersive user experience that fully satisfied Stanford’s vision to integrate experiential and interactive art.
“We really had a great team including GKD,” commented Michael Yun, Associate Principal at Anderson Krygier. “It was very collaborative and we worked hard to develop a completely unique approach to something that nobody had ever done.”
GKD provided turnkey design assistance, shop drawings, stamped engineering plans, manufacturing, delivery, and installation of the Mediamesh® transparent media façade. The final assessment from the design team was resounding applause. “From the beginning, we had an idea of how we wanted it to look and feel,” said Yun. "The first day we had the display up and running the piece, we were standing on Discovery Walk to see how it looked. I said, ‘Wow, this looks exactly like the rendering. It’s exactly as we envisioned it.’”
Written by: CADE Architectural Resources, Niki Milliken
Project Partners: Stanford University, Flad Architects, Anderson Krygier, Whiting-Turner, Knot
Construction Completed: 2019
Products Featured: Mediamesh® by GKD Metal Fabrics
Special Thanks: Steven Pond (Stanford), Ian Grossman (Flad), Michael Yun (Anderson Krygier), Mike Leonard (GKD)