A research line in architecture and interior design has been focused for years on the selection of materials with properties specifically tailored for light, thermal and acoustic comforts. An adaptive origami-based structure is here proposed in order to overcome the limited capability of a single material to adjust its response to environmental changes. Such structure is highly flexible, with applications ranging from indoor to outdoor environments. We focus on building facades, to show some results relevant to a small-scale prototype aimed to provide shading to the sunlight

We propose the design of an environment-responsive, deployable origami-inspired structure to be used as a smart building skin. The folding structure is composed by rigid panels connected to each other through hinge-like connectors. The overall degree of openness of the whole structure is adjusted in response to variations of environmental parameters like lighting and temperature, recorded by a network of embedded sensors. The geometry and kinematics of the origami are selected so as the deployment of each module can be induced at some key points that only slide along a linear axis; in this way, electric motors with a positional control logic can prove efficient. By properly tuning the properties of each panel mounted on the frames, the proposed solution can be adopted as a shading or light refraction system, thus improving the comfort of the building interiors. Through digital prototyping and small-scale models, the effectiveness of the proposed solution is assessed. Some site-specific applications are finally discussed from the self-sensing, self-actuation and self-powering viewpoints.