London-based architect Asif Khan will blow people’s minds by blowing up their faces at the upcoming Sochi Olympics in Russia. The firm's Megaface installation will display huge 3D LED-lit impressions of visitors' faces coming out of a wall, much like a giant pinscreen. Designed for Russian mobile phone giant Megafon's pavilion, this innovative kinetic installation blends new technology with quirky and unconventional design.
Megaface will display three of the Games visitors’ faces at a time, each measuring 20 x 26 feet.The images will change every 20 seconds and it is said that it will portray about 170,000 unique faces during the two-week duration of the Olympics. To develop this mega cool installation, the architect worked closely with Swiss company Iart, who created the revolutionary technology.
The Megaface employs a whooping 10,000 telescopic cylinders (or pins), and it works similarly to the Pinscreen toys popularized in the 90s. Each pin is tipped with an LED light that shines through a thin flexible sheet draped over the facade materializing the 3D faces. The 3-D facial scans needed for the wall portraits will be gathered from photo-booths located on-site and all across Russia at MegaFon
Via Archpaper
Photos by Asif Khan
