INFLATABLE BAROQUE

INFLATABLE BAROQUE

The project’s main intention is to propose a formal language that is simultaneously capable of innovating the inflatable architecture and to express the complexity of our contemporary world.

Strongly encouraged by the innovative and challenging approach of FARM Cultural Park, the research project fits within the debate on creative potential offered by new digital technologies in different fields, from art to architecture. Join this discussion means to try to understand the languages and methods of expression bringing contemporary heritage bequeathed by history.

Our proposal is therefore to use the Baroque as the key to reading the new landscape of digital architecture and use it as a formal vocabulary to revolutionize the language of the inflatable architecture.

The inspiration comes both from the incredible actuality of Baroque themes and from the analysis of the context in which the FARM Cultural Park arises and develops, many and fascinating are the examples of Sicilian baroque religious architecture.

Exclusively Baroque issues as ornament, exuberance, dynamism become the foundations for the creation of non-conventional spaces that express the frenzy and exaggeration of our age.

The “chiaroscuro” of Caravaggio, Bernini’s winding drapes with their drama become for us the examples through which reinterpret the inflatable architecture with its way of being ephemeral and precarious; therefore it became possible to find into the decoration and excess a new future development.

This dualism between the Baroque and typical conventional forms of inflatable architecture is expressed in opposing a “Platonic” outer shell, with an elliptical form, and an inner space characterized by fluid forms; Baroque precisely definable.

Inspired by caves designed within the gardens of the Baroque era, such as the Boboli Garden, the Pavilion conceals its true nature initially showing in a recognizable and conventional way, to impress later the visitor with an unexpected and impressive interior space.

The Pavilion becomes reflective space therefore able to isolate the man by his contemporary reality thanks to a formal language that brings him back to his primordial nature.

In this fluidity, the ornament is not only simple decoration but the real soul of the project; due to seams the inner surface is modeled as a drape that creates loops and prominences where you can sit and hide. Is it possible to classify the space, creating most intimate places compared to the large central space.

The inner surface is characterized by a torsion and a rotation that generate an upward movement that pushes the visitor to go with all surfaces up to lift your eyes towards the sky, just like architects did in the cupolas of baroque churches.

The movement is “crystallize” into an evocative atmosphere, also dictated by the choice of the material used, the Vitroflex, an incredibly translucent membrane made by Festo KG; this material is also very secure because of the chemical composition that is created, in case of fire in fact only vinegar and non toxic water vapor would be released.

The inflator mechanism consists of a simple room air that makes it so easy and fast inflation and deflation, while the seams determine the shape. Regarding anchoring, the pavilion is stabilized by a bead filled with water that runs along the outer perimeter.

Turns out to be very interesting as the defiance of gravity so much sought after by baroque artists is so easily accessible in an inflatable architecture, where the air becomes a powerful force able to hover freely the forms.