From Split Flap to Full Color: Oat Foundry Introduces Chroma Flap, a Kinetic Architectural System for Experiential Interiors

"Everyone's adding another screen. We're doing the opposite…and it's working. For over a decade, we've built real things that move people. Chroma Flap is the fullest expression of that mission: mechanics and color working together to make the built environment feel alive", says Oat Foundry CEO and Co-Founder Mark Kuhn. Kuhn was recently elected to serve on the board of SEGD (Society for Experiential Graphic Design).

Inspired by the same mechanical movement as Oat Foundry's flagship Split Flap display, Chroma Flap draws from a curated color palette to transition between animated patterns, vibrant gradients, pixel compositions, and dynamic data visualizations, functioning as an ever-evolving moving mural embedded within any built environment.

Engineered specifically for commercial buildings, cultural institutions, and branded environments, each Chroma Flap installation functions as a kinetic placemaking centerpiece. The flipping elements create both visual movement and subtle acoustic texture, producing a multisensory, experiential mosaic wall.

Chroma Flap uses Oat Foundry's content management system, Portal, to produce moving analog wallpapers. Users can upload landscapes, brand photography, logos, and data visualizations to become translated into bit-style art. The adaptable programming allows users to schedule and shift visuals to complement different "episodes" within a space, from quiet mornings to high-energy evenings, creating a series of unique 3D wall designs to match any mood.

"Chroma Flap performs best by creating memorable moments in transient spaces," says Zach Wallace, Engineering Project Manager. "A lobby, a train station, an airport—all can be bland spaces we forget quickly. Chroma Flap creates a memorable experience that leaves a lasting impression, a conversation piece and a reason to return."

As lobbies evolve into lounges, offices become hospitality-driven "third places," and public atriums function as community living rooms, Chroma Flap is experiential architecture that performs and allows flexible design within a space.

Created for architects and interior designers, Chroma Flap was developed with architectural integration in mind. As a modular and scalable system, Chroma Flap enables custom configurations tailored to specific spatial and structural requirements.

Key features of Chroma Flap include:

• Create an entirely custom Pantone-matched palette or work with recommended colors
• Modular construction adaptable to various dimensions and layouts
• Ability to transform images, logos, wallpapers, and data into kinetic compositions
• Installs with minimal disruption to existing architecture
• Clients can use the Portal API to connect data integrations for visualization
• A fraction of the power consumption required by alternative digital video wall systems

The modular system can be recessed, surface-applied, or framed within custom millwork to align with a project's material palette and detailing strategy.

As hospitality, workplace, and civic interiors increasingly converge around placemaking, flexibility, and emotionally resonant design, Chroma Flap responds with movement, tactility, and presence, without relying on screens. The mechanical motion and pixel-driven compositions of Chroma Flap resonate with today's renewed interest in modern nostalgia and retrofuturism aesthetics, offering architects a way to embed craft and forward-thinking design into a single sensory installation.

According to Creative Director Sarah Van Bemmel, the medium is flexible, accommodating everything from abstract art to geometric patterns. "With 50 colors at large scale, you can continuously change the artwork and never see the same thing twice. Unlike a static mural, the content grows with your space, evolving alongside a brand's identity."

For architects, this opens new possibilities in lobby feature walls, atrium-scale architectural installations, experiential placemaking centerpieces, modular kinetic walls, and pixel walls inspired by physical pixel art and retrofuturism aesthetics. From immersive 3D wall designs to moving murals, Chroma Flap bridges kinetic design and architectural excellence.

In a design era defined by tactile materials, layered sensory cues, and environments that feel human rather than hyper-digital, Chroma Flap aligns by operating as "invisible technology", a mosaic wall that integrates into the experience rather than dominating it.

"Chroma Flap captures everything people love about analog signage—the tactile movement, the iconic sound, the presence you can feel—and elevates it into a multi-sensory art form," says Kristy Brunhofer, Director of Sales. "Unlike alternative art mediums, the artwork can evolve endlessly, giving each space a living, ever-changing atmosphere."

Chroma Flap embodies Oat Foundry's promise to "build cool stuff," while redefining how analog systems can shape contemporary architecture. The installation can be integrated with Oat Foundry's companion platform, Algorithm, expanding interactive capabilities while maintaining the structural and aesthetic integrity of the display.

Chroma Flap is engineered and manufactured at Oat Foundry's headquarters in Philadelphia, PA, where the company specializes in kinetic architectural installations and analog signage systems. Oat Foundry has previously delivered custom displays for Gensler, Google, Samsung, Netflix, Nike, Starbucks, and other global brands. The brand recently created a 42,000 flap animated wall for the first Nespresso retail location in North America, one of the largest of its kind outside an airport.

For more information, schedule a consultation.

Oat Foundry is a Philadelphia-based creative engineering and manufacturing company known for its modern reinterpretation of the classic Split Flap and Picture Flap displays. The company partners with architects, designers, and brands to create immersive, mechanical experiences for the built environment.

SOURCE Oat Foundry