LOTUS DUME (Studio Roosegaarde）

LOTUS DOME is a living dome made out of hundreds of smart flowers which fold open in response to human behaviour. LOTUS DOME creates an interactive play of light and shadow.

 As a futuristic vision on the Renaissance, LOTUS DOME merges elements of architecture and nature into an interactive environment. 

When approached, the big silver dome lights up and opens its flowers. Its behavior moves from soft breathing to dynamic mood when more people interact. The light slowly follows people, creating an interactive play of light and shadow. 

s. The purpose was to activate the beautiful but deserted Renaissance building, and make the architecture become more alive and contemporary. This dynamic relation between people and technology is what Roosegaarde calls ‘Techno-Poetry’. “Lotus Dome functions as a mediator, connecting elements of architecture and nature, of the past and the future”.

Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and can shade a room from sun and self-ventilate.

A sun-tracking instrument indexing time and temperature, "Bloom" stitches together material experimentation, structural innovation, and computational form/patternmaking into an environmentally responsive installation. The form's responsive surface is made primarily out of 14,000 smart thermobimetal tiles, where no two pieces are alike. Each individual piece automatically curls a specified amount when the outdoor ambient temperature rises above 70F or when the sun penetrates the surface.

Various other building components for the market can also incorporate the material of thermobimetal. The metal can be cut into small pieces and assembled in a matrix of individual pieces that can operate like an organic shutter system and sandwiched between two panes of glass as part of a double-glazed window panel system. When the sun penetrates the exterior surface of glass and heats the interior cavity, the bimetal will curl and constrict light from passing. Depending on the brightness of the day, the bimetal shutter system can be calibrated to completely black-out the interior space, if necessary. Applied to a large sun-facing surface, this panel system can help reduce heatgain, reduce the need for artificial air-conditioning, and conserve energy. Without the need for manual controls or power, this product can operate tirelessly, effortlessly and endlessly.

Armoured Corset (2010)

This study proposes the use of a nickel-magnesium thermobimetal as a smart material in the development of a responsive building skin. Thermobimetals are a lamination of two thin sheet metals with different expansion coefficients, which when heated results in the curling of the material. Commonly used in th form of small strips, this research considers the application of thermobimetals in architecture by multiplying the capacity of its character into a two-dimensional surface, a skin for a building. The intent is to develop a skin that as the outside (or inside) temperature rises, each individual metal tile will curve and the pores of the skin will physically open, allowing the building to ventilate automatically. To investigate the capacity of this material in this application, various tile shapes and forms were tested and modeled digitally in Catia and ParaCloud. The final selected tile was a simple, but digitally pliable, cross-shape. The dynamic shape of the overall structure allowed each tile to change parametrically, where no two tiles are identical. Depending on the length of the arms of the cross, the tiles will curve horizontally or vertically. The overall form will shrink when heated and will offset the fine-tuned balance of the structure, rocking it to maximize its shade.

These king of smart material then apply on the architect which called HygroSkin – Meteorosensitive Pavilion

In this project the elements change from open to closed within a few minutes given a rapid rise in relative humidity. Unlike other plant movements that are produced by active cell pressure changes, this movement takes place through a passive response to humidity changes. Therefore, it does not require any sensory system or motor function. The movement is independent from any metabolic function and hence, it does not consume any energy. 

The dimensional instability of wood in relation to moisture content is employed to construct a metereosensitive architectural skin that autonomously opens and closes in response to weather changes but neither requires the supply of operational energy nor any kind of mechanical or electronic control.

 

The apertures respond to relative humidity changes within a range from 30% to 90%, which equals the humidity range from bright sunny to rainy weather in a moderate climate.