Design development of the aerial installation
The exhibition is an exploration of a new generation of young designers at Nilufar Depot. In the uncanny and somewhat bewildering universe of FAR, projects converge that share an obsession with membranes, films, coatings and epidermises, or with forms developed through processes of almost geological stratification and layering, of which the purpose is intentionally left unclear. In response to this preoccupation with the theme of wrapping that unites many of the works in the show, the exhibition design revisits and pays homage to some of the most radical experiments of the twentieth century on the same theme in the architectural field, creating a dialogue with the design perspective of a new generation, and establishing a relationship of tension and infiltration with the existing space.
47 years after Haus-Rucker-Co’s Oase N. 7 burst through the facade of the Fridericianum in Kassel as part of Documenta 5, an exhibition at Nilufar Depot showcasing a new generation of designers became an opportunity to revisit one of the most iconic architectural interventions of the 20th century. Our reinterpretation of this seminal project, that acts as a backdrop to the work of a radical new generation of designers selected by Studio Vedét, revisits the concept of the “living envelope” in the age of Zorb balls, high-performance polymers and Alibaba. Like the materials and technologies it pioneered, which at the time were new and are now normal, this installation suggests the Oase and the ideas of temporality it stood for could have finally come of age.
Studio GISTO worked on the design development of the aerial installation, collaborating with Space Caviar and Studio Vedèt and the companies involved.
A catwalk and stage made of standard tubular steel sections are projected through the balcony of Nilufar Depot into the transparent sphere. A tubular steel ring is fixed to the footbridge. This ring forms the external support for a plastic shell forming a sphere when inflated into shape by an air pump. Two spheres link together to create a zone of transition between the bubble environments and gallery.
Taking inspiration from Hans Rucker Co’s : Oase N.7 and Reyner Banham and François Dallegret's illustrations of Environment Bubble in A Home is not a House. Space Caviar proposed to attach inflatable bubble environments to the existing structural levels of Nilufar Gallery to showcase the works in the exhibition FAR.
“When your house contains such a complex of piping, flues, ducts, wires, lights, inlets, outlets, ovens, sinks, refuse disposers, hi-fi reverberators, antennae, conduits, freezers, heaters – when it contains so many services that the hardware could stand up by itself without any assistance from the house, why have a house to hold it up?” - Reyner Banham
Studio Vedèt
Space Caviar
Alessandro Mason, Matteo Giustozzi
Space Caviar