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'The New Inflatable Moment' at BSA Space will explore the role of pneumatic architecture in envisioning utopia

2017-04-25T12:21:00-04:00

Pneumatic architecture—aka inflatables—have been a mainstay of avant-garde and experimental architecture for decades. Back in the ’60s, figures like Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto, alongside radical practices like Haus-Rucker-Co, Utopia and Ant Farm, pioneered the use of these structures. They’ve also been used by more mainstream studios, from Diller Scofidio + Renfro to Grimshaw.

Now, they’re the subject of an exhibition at BSA Space in Boston. Entitled The New Inflatable Moment, the exhibition, which opens on May 3, “will explore inflatable structures used in architecture, art, and engineering since the emergence of the hot air balloon,” with a particular focus on their role in “envisioning utopia.”

The exhibition is inspired by a recently-released book, The Inflatable Moment: Pneumatics and Protest in ’68. It looks at renewed interest in the architectural media within this historical context.

“With this exhibition, we revisit the moment of the 1960s explored by Dessauce to sugges...

Check out this BIG-designed bouncy castle beer pavilion

2016-07-05T13:40:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group designed an inflatable beer pavilion for the Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark. The 120 square meter, portable pavilion can be inflated in seven minutes and is equipped with purple LED lights.

Nicknamed FOAM, the pavilion will travel to a series of festivals around Denmark over the course of the year. Next year it will travel to Aarhus in celebration of the city being named the European Capital of Culture 2017.

"The idea of using a bouncy castle came about because one can create any kind of structure with this type of material,” BIG partner Jakob Lange was quoted as saying in an article for CLAD Global. "Producing it turned out to be much more difficult though than we had initially expected. The first manufacturer completely gave up and we were under enormous time pressure.

"But the end-result is the most beautiful thing you could imagine.”

For more news about BIG, check out these links:

Inga Saffron calls BIG's new Navy Yard building "mesmerizing", "reminiscent of a...

"Between a womb and a cathedral": Architects of Air's "The Most Beautiful"

2013-12-12T13:31:00-05:00

Reactions to Alan Parkinson's luminaria range from rhapsodic and enlightened, to energized or calmed. These giant inflatable structures, first designed by Parkinson in the 1980s and now touring worldwide under his "Architects of Air" organization, resemble multi-colored bouncy citadels, and create a totally immersive experience of light and color to anyone who walks their winding interiors. Imagine a Verner Panton wormhole opening into a florescent clerestory; a near-psychedelic secular pilgrimage through some giant creature's digestive system.

To celebrate over twenty years of designing, building, and touring the luminaria, Architects of Air has released The Most Beautiful, a photo book with nearly glowing images from inside the structures and a quick look at the luminaria's design history.

Since putting the first luminarium on tour in the early 1990s, Architects of Air has designed over fifteen more structures and inflated them all over the world. Made out of a custom fle...