Through Martijn Koomen’s ‘Weather, Feathers & Frost’, also known as ‘Weather Glasses,’ one can visualize weather conditions in a poetic way. The design of this sensorial partition wall allows effect of outside wind blowing about feathers to be visualized, creating a spectacular interior effect that to us, when we experienced it in person, felt almost like being inside a snowglobe. These ‘Weather Glasses’ can be part of a building either as an informative object or as an actual window that can be actived by the elements.

The whirling of the feathers within the glass panes can be controlled by a windmeter place on the roof. Sensing elements for movement, sound or light can also be used to activate the wall, turning an otherwise static partition into something lively, dynamic and enchanting.

According to Koomen, the purpose of Weather, Feathers and Frost is to make “people indoors aware of the elements outside,” and to experience the weather comfortably. He envisions that buildings in the future will be lyrically animated by weather fluctuations rather than being simply forces to keep the elements out. “I focus on the meteorological aspects of atmosphere, and methods to measure them. On the basis of a number of physical principles, I investigate how weather elements such as temperature, air pressure and wind can be made visible. By integrating already existing, but forgotten, visualization methods into glass windows, new weather ‘instruments’ will emerge.”

Martijn Koomen of southern Holland is an amateur pilot, who trained as a carpenter in Rotterdam and became an architectural model maker before enrolling at the Design Academy Eindhoven. He graduated in 2011 as an industrial designer. Now at his Amsterdam studio called 7 Monkeys, he sculpts mannequins in clay, creating ceramics that are patterned, for instance, by ants trekking across a plate and makes furniture and architecture that reflect the poetry of nature.

This project was made possible by the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.