A sun-tracking instrument indexing time and temperature, with a shape alluding to a woman’s Victorian-era under garment, "Bloom" stitches together material experimentation, structural innovation, and computational form and pattern-making into an environmentally responsive form.  Made primarily out of a "smart" thermobimetal, a sheet metal that curls when heated (no controls, no energy), the form’s responsive surface shades and ventilates specific areas under the shell as the temperature rises.  When used on a building's surface, it will reduce the absurd dependency on costly air conditioning and retard the “heat island effect”.  Adding dynamic thermobimetal to the facade may seem trivial in the big picture of building technology, but the effect on our cultural will be tremendous.  The increased complexities of building envelope design with new, smart and dynamic materials will bear careful consideration in the new era of facade aesthetics and urban meaning.

Composed of 414 hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped stacked panels, the self-supporting structure also challenges the capability of the materials to perform as a shell.  The panels combine a double-ruled surface of bimetal tiles with an interlocking, folded aluminum frame system.  The final monocoque structure, lightweight and flexible, is dependent on the overall geometry and combination of materials to provide comprehensive stability.  In some areas of "Bloom", the hypar panels are made stiffer by increasing the number of riveted connections, while, in other areas, the panels are deeper to increase structural capability.  The severely twisted panel shapes aid in the performance of the surface and challenge the digital and fabrication capabilities of parametric design.  Within a single panel, portions of the surface directly face the sun, while the other side is in the shade and requires no reaction or curling.  The result is dramatic variation in tile shapes and function within each panel.