Pneumatic Serendipity 14 by Emilio Lpz

Team 10:

Bel茅n Aguilar Mateo Bernabeu Sam Hyams Emilio L贸pez PNEUMATIC SERENDIPITY

WORKSHOP

The experience of our group with pneumatic architecture couldn´t be better. We all started the workshop checking the material and all the possibilities it could offer, because the material and the technique were completely unknown to us. At the beginning, the models we made were very simple and unsophisticated, but as we improved our understanding about the formal qualities of the material, they gained a higher level of complexity. The project´s idea arose from one of these models we made. It consisted of six triangles, which were fixed with adhesive tape. We couldn´t use the stapled union because our so thin and delicate it would break all the time. When the triangles were joined, we could get a volume very similar to a dome, but we had a problem, when we used another plastic to make the form and we connected the fan, everything was inflated, even the bases which we wanted to stay level. That´s why we opt to fix the model to the window of the workshop we were working. This meant the most determining of our pneumatic architecture: the model should be supported by the window of the workshop. This is how the ides of our project were born: create a space which would be supported by the window so it would act like an extension of the workshop space and we also wanted to create confusion and blur the boundaries between the inside and outside space. Creating dynamism between the reflected space where we projected the idea and the real space built. To improve the space, we decided to join with team 4 and 9. We had to deal with their aspects like the size, scale and the union of the different parts. Team 9 would be responsible for the connection of the elements and also create the entrance. Team 4 would create a circular space where people had to enter squatting down on their knees or crawling, before they appeare in a bigger space where they can see and communicate with other people. Text wasto be included, wrapped around inflatable protrusions. Finally, the resulting space is very intriguing and attractive. The play of the lighs created by different colours and tones, the hot one for the little space and the cold one for the bigger volume skillfully created great atmospheres, it complemented the inside and outside experience of the architecture. We all agree that this workshop has been a great experience, because we have been able to create something starting from zero, without any preconceived ideas. All the teams have been working so hard and all together as one big united team, reorganizing the space and negotiating the different architectural interventions and the union between them. We recognize the worth of the possibilities of building and living in our own pneumatic architecture. It is something we never have done before and we have learnt a lot. This has been a great experience!