Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

Multi-hinge

Multi-hinge (n.) The word “Multi-hinge” is derived from Peter Pearce’s patent1, “Multi-hinge node-less space frame”, which maximizes the hermetic enclosure of space frames, and minimizes thermal flexing. In 1987, designers of Biosphere 2 adopted this technology and hired Pearce as a façade consultant. An essential part of the Biosphere 2 was to maintain an environment separated from Biosphere 1, Earth itself. Therefore, Pearce developed the Multi-hinge system to reduce the small movements between the primary structure and its cladding to a minimum. Finally, the system was used in a double-layer for the two Biomes, and in a single layer for the Habitat and Lung Domes2. To some extent, Multi-hinge system accomplished the Biosphere 2 project by providing the world’s most airtight building. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, Biosphere 2 failed to prove the feasibility of a permanent manmade ecological system, and was largely dismissed by reporters and scientists as a “science fiction”. However, it did reveal the values and possibilities of creating a balance between biosphere and technosphere3. The invention and application of Multi-hinge system is a significant proof of the positive relationship between technology and ecology, although designers of Biosphere might not realize it.

1 Janette Kim and Erik Carver, “Crisis in Crisis: Biosphere 2’s Contested Ecologies,” Volume, Bootleg Edition Urban China (February 2009), 31.
2 Ibid.
3 John Allen and Anthony Blake, Eds. Biosphere.