Thermobimetal is a lamination of two alloys of metals with different coefficients of expansion. When heated, the "smart" material curls. This natural behavior is beneficial during construction because it enables a person to assemble the project with minimal effort and danger.
With no mechanical force required, a single person can assemble the surface with a single hand. Each individual piece is heated in a conventional oven to about 350˚ Farenheit, the point with optimal geometric curl, then simply held into position until it cools.
As the piece cools and returns to its flattened state, it is prematurely locked into place, forming a pre-tensioned bow-beam (imagine an archer's bow). When distributed in a field of bows on a cylindrical type of surface, the result is an extremely strong and lightweight shell, much like the exo-skeleton of a lobster or crustacean. The surface is held in tension with no connection hardware.
This proof-of-concept prototype is the bottom tier of a five-tiered tower. The four upper tiers is planned for completion by 2015.
Title: exo
Designer: Doris Sung, DOSU Studio Architecture (Team: Dylan Wood, Hannah Woo, Evan Shieh, Jessica Chang, Dennis Chow, Carter Shaw)
Engineers: ARUP Engineering (Team: Roel Schierbeek, Gregory Nielsen, Laura Mino)
Fabricators: Neal Feay Company (Alex Rasmussen)
Material Suppliers: Engineered Materials Solutions
Doris Sung
After receiving her B.A. at Princeton University and M.Arch. at Columbia University, Doris Sung worked in various offices in cities across the U.S. before arriving in Los Angeles in 2001. She developed her research focus while teaching at University of Southern California (USC), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), University of Colorado and the Catholic University of America.
In 1999, she opened her office, dO|Su Studio Architecture, and soon received many AIA and ASID awards for her work, including the prestigious accolades of AIA Young-Designer-of-the-Year, ACSA Faculty Design Award, R+D Honorable Mention from Architect Magazine and [next idea] award from ARS Electronica.
Currently, she is working on developing smart thermobimetals and other shape-memory alloys, unfamiliar materials to architecture, as new materials for the "third" skin (the first is human flesh, the second clothing and the third architecture). Its ability to curl when heated allows the building skin to respond for purposes of sun-shading, self-ventilating, shape-changing and structure-prestressing. Her work has been funded by the national AIA Upjohn Initiative, Arnold W. Brunner Grant, Graham Foundation Grant, Architectural Guild Award and USC ASHSS and URAP Awards. Her TEDxUSC talk is available on ted.com.
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