Photograph of the ‘floating inflatable in situ
During a three-month collaboration with architect and engineer Hans-Walter Müller, a floating inflatable was designed for the temporary exhibition Le Cyclop hors les murs – revenir pour voir après (The Cyclop Outside the Walls - Coming Back to See Afterwards), open from June 12 to September 12, 2021. The task involved not only creating a structure that relies on air to hold itself up but also one capable of floating, adapting to the site’s specific conditions and landscape.
Inspired by biomimicry, air architecture “is governed by the laws of fluids, working with energy. The heart is the ventilator, pushing air into the structure at 10 to 30 millibars, and the veins are the plastic skin, held up by the overpressure of fluids—like blood in our veins.”
From designing the floating base and testing its buoyancy to shaping the pattern for the plastic cone and optimizing its welding, the architecture demonstrates an interplay of forces and forms that transform space.
The floating inflatable and its ephemeral reflections
