Gigantic pixels

Gigantic pixels
Oozing its way around the Baroque fabric of Graz, the new Kunsthaus, an exhibition venue designed by Spacelab (Bartlett professors Peter Cook and Colin Fournier), is more than just a fashionably biomorphic blob. In a modern manifestation of Cook's and Fournier's explorations of technology, communications and architecture that began with the Archigram group in the 1960s, the building can also be a light show, cinema screen, advertising hoarding and public notice board.

The initial idea was to wrap the building in an 'intelligent skin' that would pulsate with changing colour, light and images, like a chameleon, hinting at the multi-disciplinary activities within. In practice, the cost of LED (light emitting diode) technology proved prohibitive, so a more modest solution was adopted, which, as it turns out, is equally informed by a spirit of pioneering ingenuity.

The external skin is made up of a 20mm thick layer of blue acrylic panels supported by stain-less steel clamps which hold the panels clear of a waterproof membrane behind. On the main east fa�ade, 930 circular 40W fluorescent light fittings (more commonly used as 'kitchen lamps') are mounted in the gap between the two layers. Each doughnut-shaped lamp effectively acts as a pixel, individually activated by a central computer. As well as being switched on and off, lamp intensity can be varied, from zero to 100 per c