Bloomberg, the international information agency, has created a small but fascinating showroom for its Tokyo business branch: "Bloomberg ICE". The name is its official title and stands for "interactive communicative experience". The result is a public, electronic-cum-architectural playground, a media folly as it were. A follow up to our previous story from a few months back...
Interactive Communication Experience Smart Space Instead of impressing with size, Bloomberg ICE strikes the eye due to its original conception, which is several dimensions more intelligent than the light on/light off game in Tokyo, namely the monotonous and uninterrupted rows of flickering lights composing the illuminated advertisements that are ubiquitous in the mega-city. At Bloomberg, one is confronted with a space that reacts in real time - "smart space" as it is called today in the new language of architecture. What is means is a constructed object that is sensitive, continually processes information and engages in a form of dialog. Beneath the surfaces, processors are at work which process and convert the input received from a large number of electronic sensors. The showroom is aware, it can feel and think, and it adapts itself to its users and visitors in a variety of ways. The latter serve as "agents" whereby the space observes them and continually computes its appearance in accordance with their behavior. The overall concept is based to an equal extent on complex high technology, an unusual design concept and an ambitious, micro-urbanistic, overall general strategy. Read Full article here
