Our latest experiment with building sensor networks—undertaken as part of the retrofit of Building 661 (The Building Energy Sciences Center) for the Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Hub, one of three innovation clusters created by the Department of Energy in 2011—has yielded some interesting results.

Through a week-long "Architecture as Catalyst" workshop at the University of Minnesota, KieranTimberlake researchers Billie Faircloth and Ryan Welch challenged architecture students to recast whole material assemblies as "fast" weather probes. Using low-cost wireless sensor technology developed by our research group, students were able to align their materials and construction know-how with real-time studies of the environment and open a discourse on how real-time environmental feedback can influence design practice.