Made from approximately 14,000 pieces, Bloom is the first
architectural application of a laminated metal material that
includes nickel and manganese with a bit of iron. Architecture
has long been valued for its static nature and sense of
permanence. Increasingly, however, architects are working to
make buildings more responsive to their users and to the
climate. Often this is accomplished through mechanical means,
but architect Doris Kim Sung, principal of LA-based DOSU studio
architecture, is looking at how building materials themselves
can be responsive, integrating changeability into the structure
itself. The dramatic shell-like form of her recent pavilion,
called Bloom, suggests, at first glance, that Sung is interested
in cutting-edge digital design. While this is certainly the
case, Bloom’s true innovation happens more slowly, through the
bending of its metal panels according to heat levels generated
by the sun. Commissioned by LA’s Materials and Applications
gallery, the project had to be lightweight,