The installation Bloom opened at Materials & Applications on Saturday, November 19. A collaboration between architect and Woodbury School of Architecture Graduate Chair Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, architect Doris Sung, and structural engineer Matthew Melnyk, the sculptural piece—a shiny metal “flower”— rises 20-feet into the air and towers above Silver Lake Boulevard. The petal-like skin, composed of thousands of pieces of laser cut custom fabricated sheet metal, opens and closes with the heat of the sun.

Sung is an assistant professor at University of Southern California and Melnyk teaches at SCI-Arc, so Bloom is not only a collaboration between the three practitioners, but also a chance for cross-pollination between the schools. Students from Woodbury School of Architecture and USC joined forces to fabricate and install the piece at M&A.

Bloom’s design, based on research by Sung and Wahlroos-Ritter, explores the possibilities of a thermally responsive metal surface, which reacts to both the change in temperature and direct solar radiation. When the temperature of the metal is cool, the surface will appear as a solid object, but once the afternoon heat penetrates the metal, the panels of custom woven bimetal will adjust and fan out to allow airflow and increase shade potential. The thermo-bimetal alloys used in the project expand the notion of surface and structure in architecture.

More pix here.

DESIGN TEAM:
Dylan Wood (Lead)
Kristi Butterworth, Ali Chen, Renata Ganis, Derek Greene, Julia Michalski, Sayo Morinaga, Evan Shieh

CONSTRUCTION TEAM:
Dylan Wood, Garrett Helm, Derek Greene, Kelly Wong (Core Team)
Manual Alcala*, Eric Arm*, Lily Bakhshi*, Amr Basuony*, Olivia Burke, Kristi Butterworth, Jesus Cabildo*, Shu Cai, Ali Chen, Taylor Cornelson, Erin Cuevas, Matt Evans, Chris Flynn, Renata Ganis, Bryn Garrett, Ana Gharakh, Stephen Hartounian**, Oliver Hess, David Hoffman, Alice Hovsepian**, Casey Hughes, Ross Jeffries,  Justin Kang, Syd Kato, Andrew Kim, Glen Kinoshita, Ingrid Lao, Jennifer MacLeod, Max Miller, Mark Montiel*, Laura Ng, Robbie Nock, Raynald Pelletier**, Elizabeth Perikli, Nelly Paz*, Evan Shieh, Hector Solis, Raven Weng, Leon Wood, Tyler Zalmanzig

*Woodbury School of Architecture student
**Woodbury alum