In the end of September 2016 the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly hosted Ambiances Tomorrow ; the 3rd International Congress of Ambiances network. To enhance this event, professors Sophia Vyzoviti and Nicolas Remy, together with a group of architecture students undertook the production of a temporary installation.  Sim[pli]city was conceived as a minimum act of architecture; a pop-up surface that produces an atmosphere. Located in the open air amphitheater of the School of Engineering it provided a relaxing counterpoint to the intense scientific proceedings of the interior. Sim[pli]city was designed as visual and acoustic background to the evening events of the congress; Dialogues and Sound Works. The Dialogues included presentations on the performative modulation for public ambiances and debates on the future of ambiances envisioned by young researchers. Sound Works was a curated concert of recorded projects featuring works from the experimental electro music scène in Greece.

Sim[pli]city is a lightweight transformable structure in the genealogy of architectural screens. It integrates characteristics of the Japanese shoji screens with digital fabrication techniques employing folding. Composed of a pliable wooden grid it changed shape to signify the events that evolved during the Congress. Three distinct elements later combined into one structural entity. Its first configuration consists of a triangular pylon, a cylindrical walk-in hut and an inclined pyramid. The cylindrical hut has the structural identity of traditional yurts; but also it unfolds into a long flat screen. The grid is dressed in folded leaves. These were generated by the use of origami techniques leading to original three-dimensional patterns. Their intrinsic geometry produces an ambient light and shadow play that changes through the day. Their fine laser-cut lining enhances the installations’ atmosphere with haptic detailing. During the night they become animated by projections and lighting. The environmental décor produced by the folded leaves of sim[pli]city became the film setting for a series of interviews by the International Ambiances Network.

The design logic of the installation is based on prior research on Folding Architecture by Sophia Vyzoviti. The hypothesis in this case is the invention of an integrated, pliable, kinetic system that could transform smoothly from one state to another without having to be dismantled. In sim[pli]city structure and cladding  - the wooden diagrid and the paper leaves- manifest the same kinetic behavior. Both contract and expand between 30 and 60 degrees angle. The production took place in the Digital Fabrication Laboratory and the Wood and Metal Shop of the Department of Architecture. A large number of volunteers assisted the construction process enhancing the production of the installation with a festive ambiance.