'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...

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