Slinky(Bot)
BIOGENIC ORGANIZATIONAL TAXONOMIES
AADRL
DESIGN RESEARCH LAB
About
Slinky(BOT) is an autonomous, self-assembling, and self-aware design system developed at the Architectural Association’s Design Research Lab. It proposes a new way of living through an endlessly adaptable, materially and geometrically elastic architecture. The slinkybots act as emotive household companions with their own life cycles, growing and evolving in harmony with their human users.The system works across multiple scales.
At the unit scale, research focused on the morphology of a dual-state slinkybot: a compact state for mobility and structural behavior, and an extended state for spanning, transparency, and higher complexity. Each bot is aware of its environment, other bots, and humans, and can respond both individually and collectively.
At the aggregation scale, units communicate to form varied organizational taxonomies. Over time, they differentiate into specialized forms that create functional landscapes, lighting systems, and sensory, interactive spatial experiences.
At the population scale, the system explores adaptive spatial frameworks inspired by the Eames House—capturing values of playfulness, adaptability, iteration, and sustainability—reinterpreted through contemporary technological capabilities.
PARTICLE-SPRING SYSTEM CODING SIMULATION
Core Air Muscle
A central multi-chamber inflatable segment controls the slinkybot’s primary movement. By inflating in a programmed sequence, it expands, contracts, and produces a straight, mono-directional translation.
Orientational Air Muscles
These muscles allow the slinkybot to change direction. Each can be activated independently or together to create specific movement choreographies. When all orientational muscles inflate simultaneously, the bot extends straight ahead.
Inflatable Soft Skin
The soft skin is made of multi-chamber inflatable pockets that deform through pressurized air. Corner pockets shift the slinkybot from a rounded form to a more cubic, stable shape for stacking. Other pockets act as “breathing” elements, giving the unit sensitivity and responsiveness to human touch.
Mobility & self structuring
Pop up functional landscapes
The slinkybots first level of complexity is developed when they understand that the human exists as a physical boundary. Their first task would be basic clustering, and then simply opening to establish functional landscape/seating.
Ceiling configurations
When the units detect the presence of human, they descend to create functional lighting that is efficient and sustainable.
