Technicolor Bloom: Kaleidoscopic Form in Vienna

Brennan Buck, Rob Henderson, Studio Lynn

Technicolor Bloom is a kaleidoscopic architectural prototype built from 1400 uniquely cut, flat plywood panels.

Designed and fabricated by Brennan Buck with Rob Henderson and students from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Technicolor Bloom uses completely standard, scalable fabrication technology to produce doubly curved, digitally designed form. It proposes a method and a set of aesthetic principles that extend the architectural potential of topological form by incorporating architectural systems such as structure, aperture, fenestration and construction directly into the project's geometry. The result is a spatial study of the literal and phenomenal effects of 3-dimensional pattern.

Within the context of Architecture’s current interest and reliance on the iconic, the project also investigates the complex relationship between figure and form. Technicolor Bloom experiments with figure at its most undefined and indeterminate: patterns reinforce the geometry they define one moment and cloud it the next; figures operate at multiple scales and simultaneously emerge separately and fuse together. The installation proposes a variation of architectural figure that never reaches the static meaning produced by iconography, but evokes only loose associations, remaining in the realm of affect.

Installed for the first time in Fall 2007, Technicolor Bloom recently won an international FEIDAD Design Merit Award and is now on show at the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts) in Vienna.

More information can be found at www.technicolorbloom.com

Technicolor Bloom

Technicolor Bloom

Technicolor Bloom close-up view