WorkRed Paper Heart
Day
Digital sculpture driven by live building sensor data
- Role
- Lead Developer
- Year
- 2022
- Studio
- Red Paper Heart
- Project
- Full case study
- Technology
- Unity, Live building sensor data, Custom CMS
Overview
Day is a permanent generative digital sculpture Red Paper Heart made for Microsoft's Toronto office as part of its remodel, driven by live data from the very building it sits in. The building's HVAC systems and sensors track power, air, water and occupancy, and each hour a new ring of the sculpture forms from the latest readings. Twenty-four rings make a full day. The sculpture also reacts to the current weather, and it can compare one day with the days before it to show how activity in the building has changed.
Behind it is an extensive CMS for configuring the sculpture designs and harvesting the live building data, plus a system for exporting video captures of different days. It was built in Unity.
My role
I led development with one junior developer, working with the technical director, and architected the application that brought the live building data, the sculpture designs and the generative sculpture together.
- Built the generative sculpture and mesh system that turns each hour of readings into a new ring
- Created custom sculpture materials with dynamic palettes
- Worked with the building's data team to find the readings worth showing, then customized and polled their API to feed the sculpture