Suspended Stills



Year   2021
Site   Detroit, MI
Prof   Allegra Pitera
Team   David Langenburg
       Larissa McCoy






Next to the Detroit Institute of Arts, this Film Institute introduces a façade that behaves like a cinematic membrane. The building is clad in a dense field of thin LED panels. Each panel is rigid enough to hold a precise still and light enough to flutter when the wind touches it. Inside, the institute gathers theaters, projector labs, a media museum, and research offices. The building operates both as a place for the study of film and as an instrument that turns the environment into a kind of moving picture.


Ground Floor 
Second Floor and Roof
The façade becomes a collection of suspended frames. In quiet weather, the panels line up and produce clear sequences across the elevation. In wind, the surface loses alignment and the images shift into soft, luminous blur. The building continuously rewrites itself, its appearance shaped by changing atmospheric conditions rather than mechanical movement.

West-facing Façade
A façade that performs without needing an audience ↑