If the temperature drops I wear another jumper, if it suddenly rains we run to the nearest shelter or put up and umbrella. If i’m late for a meeting I walk the most direct route, if I’m not i’ll sneak into the the British Museum for a quick look.

Our days are constantly moderated by a small series of actions and reactions. If life was static and unchanging we’d lose life affirming spontaneity and fail to adapt to opportunities. Buildings though stay the same. This is boring. However, we don’t have to accept their unchanging form, some people are doing their best to make them come alive.

The Building Centre in London hosted an exhibition last April on the work of the American Engineer/Scientist/Designer Chuck Hoberman, a brilliant mind who’s work is focused on making parts of a building or even a whole object move in reaction to external stimulus. Chuck isn’t the only visionary in this field. Tristan d’Estrée Sterk founder of ORAMBRA (The Office for Robotic Architectural Media & Bureau for Responsive Architecture) and academic at the Art Institute of Chicago is an advocate of responsive and adaptive architecture.

As a visiting tutor and visiting co-professional on the RIBA educational panel I get to see a lot of student work. Some design projects focus on the technology of facades which is a sensible thing to do bearing in mind the need to promote refurbishment rather than demolition.

However, with one exception I’ve come away thinking that an opportunity had been lost, the designs are static and unchanging. If the facade could move, could expand, contract and change colour the city scape could transformed into a kinetic, ever moving entity. Apart from being great fun a moving building would have practical benefits of continuously adapting to environmental conditions. ORAMBRA highlight the finding of the US department of energy that 3100 Trillion kJ of energy could be saved from building stock if it was able to move in response to environmental conditions.

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