Crossover: Buildings, lasers and sewing machines

The Boston Society of Architects and the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts presents: Architect and innovator Juan Frano Violich FAIA explores the nature of materials and surfaces and how the integration of technology and materials creates energy-efficient solutions. Violich will introduce two current projects. The Portable Light Project, a nonprofit initiative, creates new ways to deliver renewable power and light to the developing world in a textile form that integrates flexible photovoltaics and energy-efficient solid state lighting. The Soft House Project-a pre-fabricated house that transforms the household curtain into a set of energyharvesting textiles that distribute renewable electrical power-adapts to changes in contemporary domestic/work space needs and generates up to half the daily power needs of an average U.S. household. Violich and his partner Sheila Kennedy AIA are co-founders of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, a Boston-based interdisciplinary design practice that explores new relationships between architecture, digital technology and emerging public needs. MATx, the firm’s pioneering materials research unit, engages teaching, writing and applied creative production across the fields of electronics, architecture and material design. Violich and David Hacin AIA co-chair the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts (DIGMA), which is co-sponsoring the lecture. Please visit - www.architects.org/lectureseries