BAM developed a conceptual model made from rice noodles and sugar crystals. The client loved the conceptual model and after learning of its ingredients asked if it could be made to fill the actual atrium space. Through the design process, BAM developed the idea into a 60-meter-long, 30 m-tall installation.

Initial studies of the space focused on sun and shadow patterns in the building throughout the year. Modelling software determined areas of the space that received the most light and least light, and when this was happening. Maps were made of “sun volumes,” three-dimensional shapes representing varying light intensities. These “sun volumes” are reflected in the form of an object that fills the atrium space. Aggregated star-form structures, “urchins,” crowd regions of the atrium space. More opaque “urchins” are situated in areas which receive more light, and areas which receive less light contain more transparent urchins.