Façade Idea #5 | A Moving Façade
What Can an Armadillo Teach Us About Façades?
Nature has spent millions of years solving engineering problems.
Could one of those solutions inspire a better façade?
At OpenFace Day 2026, Gabriel Marks, Giorgia Vercelloni, Jasmijn Jiskoot and Lieke Linthorst presented LORICA, a kinetic façade inspired by the articulated armour of the armadillo.
Learning from nature
The project began with an unexpected source of inspiration: a museum specimen of an armadillo.
Its layered shell inspired the team to investigate origami-inspired folding systems capable of creating a façade that expands and contracts while controlling daylight and solar exposure.
Through a series of physical prototypes, the team developed a kinetic second skin capable of adapting to changing environmental conditions.
The result is a façade that combines:
- adaptive shading;
- daylight modulation;
- biomimetic principles;
- lightweight construction.
Buildings increasingly need to respond to changing environmental conditions and adaptive façades offer an opportunity to make buildings more responsive while reducing energy demand.
About the team
The project was developed by Gabriel Marks, Giorgia Vercelloni, Jasmijn Jiskoot and Lieke Linthorst within the Bucky Lab MSc Studio at TU Delft under the supervision of Marcel Bilow and Nadia Remmerswaal.