At the Return to the River festival in Grand Rapids, Cyril Lancelin – Town and Concrete introduces his latest large-scale inflatable installation, Pyramid Curbs. The vibrant, immersive structure transforms the urban landscape into a playground of color and geometry, inviting visitors to step inside a three-dimensional rainbow maze.

The artwork is composed of intertwined tubular forms that rise and curve into an abstract pyramid-like silhouette. Its surface is covered in a gradient of rainbow hues, producing a dazzling visual effect that shifts with light and perspective. From afar, Pyramid Curbs appears as a monumental bundle of neon-colored roots, while up close it becomes a walkable labyrinth where visitors can explore and lose themselves between the inflated walls.

all images by DGRI, Bryan Esler, Shafi Subhan, courtesy of Cyril Lancelin – Town and Concrete

integrating sculpture, architecture, and playground

True to French artist-architect Cyril Lancelin’s practice, the work blurs the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, and playground. Repetition and variation of geometric modules create a structure that is at once monumental and approachable. The installation celebrates collectivity and joy, encouraging people of all ages to engage physically and emotionally with the piece.

Return to the River provides the backdrop for this urban intervention, reconnecting Grand Rapids’ downtown with the waterfront through art, music, and public events. In this context, Pyramid Curbs acts as both a landmark and a social condenser, a meeting point where color, scale, and form merge to reimagine how public space can feel. 

Cyril Lancelin debuts Pyramid Curbs at the Return to the River festival in Grand Rapids

intertwined tubular forms rise into an abstract pyramid-like silhouette

a rainbow gradient covers the surface, shifting with light and perspective

the work becomes a walkable labyrinth of inflated walls

repetition and variation of modules create rhythm and scale

the installation merges sculpture, architecture, and playground design

the installation creates a shared space of discovery and connection

visitors are invited to explore the maze-like interior

the inflatable installation transforms the city into a geometric playground

rainbow tones shift constantly with changes in light

project info:

name: Pyramid Curbs
designer: Cyril Lancelin | @town.and.concrete

location: Downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan

client: Downtown Grand Rapids Inc | @downtowngrinc / Return to the River Festival | @returntotheriver

production: ATC

photographers: DGRI, Bryan Esler, Shafi Subhan

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Sabine Marcelis brings her recent translucent installation of pink inflatables named Jelly Floats to the Lake Como EDITION. Shown during the Lake Como Design Festival, which runs from September 14th to 21st, 2025, the installation is set to remain in place for the hotel guests through the end of the summer season. Jelly Floats is a group of large inflatable sculptures set on the surface of the hotels’ floating pool and overlooking the area’s western shore. A series of donut-shaped floaties by Sabine Marcelis swim around the pool, a few steps away from the dockside restaurant, lounge bar, cabanas, and daybeds, completing the Lake Como EDITION’s galore.

Each piece in the installation has a circular opening in the center, and the floaties’ sizes vary from about 1,000 millimeters to 3,000 millimeters in diameter. All pieces are made in a single solid color, a strong pink tone. The design adapts a form that the Dutch designer has explored in her other works, including rugs, lamps, and bowls. The surprising catch is that this is the first time she has applied it to inflatable objects.

all images courtesy of The Lake Como EDITION

Jelly Floats forms part of The Lake Como Design Festival

The floats are meant to function both as sculpture and as usable pool equipment. They rest directly on the water surface, where guests can sit, lie, or move them, and the arrangement of several different diameters allows single use or shared use. Sabine Marcelis designed Jelly Floats in her studio in Rotterdam. Here, the objects come to life from a translucent PVC-based material. Each float has a welded seam along its circular edge to keep the air chamber sealed, and the circular shape is produced by heat-sealing two flat rings of the material together, leaving an open center. The clear structure of the material lets light pass through, making the pieces visible from different points around the pool. The uniform pink color is added during production rather than by a surface coating, so the tone remains consistent if the surface is scratched.

Sabine Marcelis’ Jelly Floats is presented in cooperation with The Lake Como EDITION as part of its preview program before the hotel’s official launch in March 2026. The hotel is located in a restored 19th-century palazzo in Cadenabbia, and it contains 148 rooms, including 24 suites and two penthouses. The property also offers several dining spaces under the direction of chef Mauro Colagreco. The floating pool, where the installation is placed, extends from the lakefront and is accessible from the hotel’s terrace. Jelly Floats form part of The Lake Como Design Festival, an event that brings together works from international designers, artists, and architects. By placing Jelly Floats within the hotel pool, the event links contemporary design practice with hospitality and landscape. These pink floaties by Sabine Marcelis are set to remain at the Lake Como EDITION until the end of the summer of 2025.

Sabine Marcelis brings her translucent installation of pink inflatables Jelly Floats to the Lake Como EDITION

the installation is shown during the Lake Como Design Festival, which runs from September 14th to 21st, 2025

the installation is set to remain in place for the hotel guests through the end of the summer season

Jelly Floats is a group of large inflatable sculptures set on the surface of the hotels’ floating pool

detailed view of the installation

each piece in the installation has a circular opening in the center

all pieces are made in a single solid color, a strong pink tone

portrait of Sabine Marcelis sitting on her installation, Jelly Floats

Sabine Marcelis’ Jelly Floats is presented in cooperation with The Lake Como EDITION

project info:

name: Jelly Floats

designer: Sabine Marcelis | @sabine_marcelis

hospitality: Lake Como EDITION | @editioncomo, @editionhotels

event: Lake Como Design Festival | @lakecomodesignfestival

dates: September 14th to 21st, 2025

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The Ark Nova, a mobile concert hall conceived by artist Anish Kapoor, the late architect Arata Isozaki (1931-2022), and collaborators Masahide Kajimoto and Michael Haefliger, rises as both artwork and architectural experiment on the Lidowiese in Switzerland for Lucerne Festival, running until September 14th, 2025. Originally created in 2013 in the aftermath of the Fukushima earthquake (find designboom’s previous coverage here), this inflatable structure was designed as a symbol of hope, its temporary, ethereal form carrying music, light, and human resilience. For its 2025 Swiss debut, the Ark Nova offers eleven days of concerts ranging from classical and folk to jazz and pop, while functioning simultaneously as a sculptural installation, a venue, and an immersive exhibition space.

all images by Seraina Wirz, unless stated otherwise

From Lucerne Festival concert hall to Living Exhibition

The Ark Nova’s architecture is defined by its mobility and flexibility. Visitors can experience its interior either during the Lucerne Festival performances or as part of guided tours, which reveal the hall’s design logic, engineering, and conceptual foundations. Apart from performances, each ticket grants access to a special exhibition at the Hans Erni Museum, where models, documents, and films trace the hall’s development from concept to reality.

The presence of the structure on Lucerne’s lakeside transforms the public space into an ephemeral cultural hub, allowing interaction, open exploration, and even participatory musical experiences, from sing-alongs to workshops. Three Open4All sessions, as well as family-focused days, invite visitors to traverse the hall freely, highlighting the Ark Nova’s adaptability and social mission alongside its aesthetic qualities.

the Ark Nova is a mobile concert hall

conceived by artist Anish Kapoor and the late architect Arata Isozaki

the structure rises as both artwork and architectural experiment

originally created in 2013 in the aftermath of the Fukushima earthquake

the installation hosts the Lucerne Festival, running until September 14th, 2025

its temporary, ethereal form carries music, light, and human resilience

for its 2025 Swiss debut, the Ark Nova offers eleven days of concerts

functioning as a sculptural installation, a venue, and an immersive exhibition space

the Ark Nova’s architecture is defined by its mobility and flexibility

visitors can experience its interior either during performances or as part of guided tours

each ticket grants access to a special exhibition at the Hans Erni Museum

the presence of the structure on Lucerne’s lakeside transforms the public space

at night, the structure glows with magenta hues

conceived in collaboration with Masahide Kajimoto and Michael Haefliger

Ark Nova can be found on the Lidowiese in Lucerne, Switzerland

project info:

name: Ark Nova

architect / collaborators: Anish Kapoor | @dirty_corner, Arata Isozaki, Masahide Kajimoto, Michael Haefliger

festival: Lucerne Festival | @lucernefestival

location: Lidowiese, Lucerne, Switzerland

dates: September 4th – 14th, 2025

photographer: Seraina Wirz | @serainawirz_afaf

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Hans-Walter Müller, a German-born architect, artist, and engineer has lived in an inflatable house for over 50 years, where a constantly humming motor keeps the air-formed structure upright. Since the 1960s, Müller has explored the spatial and sensory possibilities of air-supported architecture, building transparent plastic igloos and experimenting with forms that shift and float. His unusual approach is revisited at the Luftmuseum in Amberg through the exhibition Monsieur Luftarchitektur, on view until September 14, 2025. As the first solo exhibition and retrospective of the visionary air architect in Germany, it offers a unique insight into his work shaped by impermanence and imagination.

Pneumatic architecture — a field that trades mass for volume and weight for lightness — offers a provocative alternative to conventional building practices. Adaptable, mobile, and expressive, it continues to challenge assumptions about materiality and permanence. Tracing Müller’s journey and placing his work within a broader history of inflatable design, from its beginnings to its contemporary resurgence, we explore how air-filled visions shape the past, present, and possible futures.

Hans-Walter Müller in his transparent balloon during a ride through the city centre of Paris on World Environment Day, 2001 | image © Marie-France Vesperini

INFLATABLE DESIGN AS A PERSONAL MANIFESTO

Born in 1935 in Worms, Germany, Hans-Walter Müller studied architecture and engineering in Darmstadt before continuing at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From early on, he challenged the conventions of static architecture, imagining structures defined not by weight and rigidity but by air, movement, and impermanence. Over the decades, his single-walled air-supported structures have taken shape as theaters, exhibition spaces, mobile studios, temporary shopping venues, and shelters in humanitarian contexts.

Known in Germany as the Architekt der Lüfte — the architect of air — Müller has long described his work as architecture of movement, rejecting static form in favor of dynamism and flux. To construct his structures, Müller uses high-frequency welding machines to join cut plastic patterns into large-scale rooms and interconnected ensembles. The lightweight constructions are made from colored, opaque, or transparent materials and can be relocated with ease. Over the years, he has developed innovative fastening systems and solutions for air exchange and pressure loss at entry points. His domes, roofs, and inflatable rooms are scattered across the globe, creating spatial experiences that are as atmospheric as they are ephemeral.

sound structure with resonance sphere on the grounds of La Ferté-Alais

Müller’s collaborations span art, architecture, and performance. In 1970, he created an airborne stage featuring a set design by Andy Warhol, a year later, he developed an inflatable studio for Jean Dubuffet. He also worked with Frei Otto, known for the tensile roof of the Munich Olympic Stadium, yet his most emblematic project remains his inflatable house he built in 1971 and still inhabits outside Paris. Both manifesto and prototype, it is a shifting structure that challenges assumptions about domestic space.

inside Hans-Walter Müller’s inflatable home | image © Lukas Schaller

THE RISE AND RETURN OF PNEUMATIC ARCHITECTURE IN DESIGN HISTORY

While Hans-Walter Müller played a defining role in popularizing inflatable architecture, he wasn’t alone in reimagining how air and plastic could reshape the built environment. In the mid-20th century, architects such as Frei Otto and Cedric Price were likewise drawn to the possibilities of lightweight, flexible forms. The roots of pneumatic design can be traced back even further, to 1948, when American engineer Walter Bird developed the first inflatable dome to shield military radar systems from weather. These early innovations planted the seed for a new architectural vocabulary — one that favored adaptability over solidity.

Walter Bird standing on top of one of his first pneumatic “radome” prototypes on the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory grounds in Buffalo, New York, 1948 | image © Birdair, Inc.

This new architectural language gathered momentum in the 1960s and reached a symbolic high point at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka — a landmark event for experimental architecture. Among the most outstanding structures was the Fuji Group Pavilion by Yutaka Murata. With a circular plan and a diameter of 50 meters, it was the largest air-inflated structure in the world at the time. Sixteen identical air-filled arches composed the frame, with a geometric twist. While the central arches followed a semicircular profile, those positioned closer to the ends narrowed at the base, causing their peaks to rise higher. Made of vinyl-coated polyester and held aloft by internal air pressure calibrated at around 1000 millimeters waterhead, the dome appeared to float above the site like a living membrane.

Fuji Group Pavilion by Yutaka Murata, Osaka, 1970 | image © Yutaka Murata, courtesy of Osaka Prefectural Government

Two years later, the Austrian collective Haus-Rucker-Co pushed pneumatic design into the realm of radical art and institutional critique. Created for Documenta 5 in 1972 — the renowned contemporary art exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany — Oase No. 7 temporarily transformed the neoclassical facade of the Fridericianum in Kassel. The project consisted of a transparent PVC sphere, eight meters in diameter, mounted on a steel ring structure that cantilevered outward from a window of the museum. Accessed via a walkway piercing the building’s wall, the inflated orb hovered above the entrance like an artificial growth, suspended between interior and exterior. Inside, visitors encountered a surreal micro-environment complete with plastic palm trees, a hammock, and a red flag. Half a century later, the questions posed by such temporary, air-supported structures continue to resonate — especially as architects return to light, mobile, and reversible forms in response to today’s environmental and social urgencies.

‘Oase No. 7, Documenta 5’ 1972 by Haus-Rucker-Co | image © Dennis Conrad

In contemporary practice, pneumatic architecture continues to evolve as a relevant and forward-looking design strategy. For Switzerland’s contribution to Expo 2025 in Osaka, Manuel Herz Architects — in collaboration with researchers from the Kyoto Institute of Technology — have developed a pavilion composed largely of pressurized, air-inflated spheres made from recyclable ETFE. These elements form a lightweight construction of hollow double-shell membranes supported by curved steel beams. Since air pressure is generated only within the outer shell, the structure avoids the need for airlocks at the entrances, maintaining a stable interior climate with minimal technical effort. Echoing the speculative spirit of Expo 70, the design reflects on how impermanent, mobile architecture can meet contemporary demands for climate responsiveness, material efficiency, and spatial adaptability — not as a nostalgic gesture, but as a viable strategy for building more lightly on Earth.

the Swiss Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka | image courtesy of FDFA, Presence Switzerland

From countercultural interventions to contemporary pavilions, pneumatic architecture has continually offered a way to build that is light, experimental, and open to change. While many examples serve as a spectacle or statement, others delve deeper into the existential potentials of air-filled space. Few have pursued this path as consistently as Hans-Walter Müller. Though he did not invent inflatable architecture, his work stands out for its steady commitment: a lifelong investigation into what it means to inhabit air, to live within movement, and to turn the temporary into the everyday.

structure by Hans-Walter Müller at the Nice Festival in 1981

exhibition “Au bord de l’air” (On the edge of the air), Parc de La Villette, Paris, 2006 | image © Marie-France Vesperini

construction by Hans-Walter Müller at Walther Square in Bolzano, 2023 | image © Marie-France Vesperini

Hans-Walter Müller in the process of making his inflatable structures

Hans-Walter Müller’s Pianodrome in the courtyard of Poppelsdorf Schloss, 2016

exhibition view of Monsieur Luftarchitektur at the Luftmuseum | image © Marcus Rebmann

portrait of Hans-Walter Müller | image © Marcus Rebmann

project info: 

name: Pneumatic Architecture

architect: Hans-Walter Müller

publication: Hans-Walter Müller und das lebendige Haus; ISBN: 9783959055116
exhibition: “Monsieur Luftarchitektur – Hans-Walter Müller” Architekt, Ingenieur, Künstler; 1967 bis heute
location: Luftmuseum e.V., Amberg, Germany 

dates: May 25th – September 14th, 2025

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Penique Productions takes over Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building with the inflatable and translucent installation, MATRIA. The monochromatic pink artwork forms part of the 2025 arts festival Now or Never, which runs between August 21st and 31st. It reimagines the 19th-century building as a living, breathing organism, transforming it into a warm, womb-like environment filled with sounds. The site-specific intervention uses gossamer, floaty balloons that crawl and cling onto the contours of the space, cloaking around it like an ephemeral blanket.

For MATRIA, the Barcelona-based collective draws on the idea of refuge, memory, and care. In fact, the name itself stems from ‘mother’ and ‘motherland.’ These themes run through the artwork inside Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building, as the installation recalls the state and sensation of being inside a mother’s womb. The plastic material gently sways as the wind blows, and the visitors pad around through the intervention with the background music, humming and pulsating, following their every step. Penique Productions, which has once brought their inflatable installation inside the semi-open atrium of Llanterna de L’Auditori in Barcelona, co-created the pink and translucent MATRIA in partnership with Museums Victoria. It is set to remain on-site until August 31st, 2025.

all images courtesy of Penique Productions

Pink Installation in Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building

MATRIA uses one inflatable membrane that covers the interior of Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building. It measures approximately 150 meters long and 50 meters wide to match the architecture’s dimensions, and the public installation by the collective Penique Productions reaches 60 meters high at the dome peak. 

The inflatable system operates through continuous air pressure, all the while keeping the air circulation systems running throughout operating hours to keep the membrane inflated. The site-specific intervention also uses pink translucent plastic material, with sections connecting through heat-welded seams to create the complete structure. 

MATRIA uses one inflatable membrane that covers the interior of Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building

Performances inside Matria during now or never arts festival

The plastic material permits light transmission while providing color filtration. In this case, the pink shade distributes evenly throughout the material, retaining the membrane’s minimal weight to reduce structural load on the building. MATRIA also serves as a performance stage throughout the run of the Now or Never arts festival until August 31st, 2025. Inside the installation. rRoxymore from Berlin performs electronic music from her release Juggling Dualities, which includes synthesizer work and sound design elements.

Alex Zhang Hungtai plays the saxophone, synthesis, and percussion, with improvisation techniques that respond to the acoustic properties of the inflated space. Amber McCartney, a dancer and choreographer from Melbourne, is set to perform leech 2 inside MATRIA, which includes prosthetics, masks, and special effects. She’s presenting alongside Shapednoise, also known as Nino Pedone, a producer and sound designer from Sicily. Then, there’s Shapednoise, who creates electronic music and sound design during Amber McCartney’s performance. Penique Productions’s MATRIA inside Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building forms part of the 2025 arts festival, Now or Never.

the material measures approximately 150 meters long and 50 meters wide to match the space’s dimensions

the public installation by the collective Penique Productions reaches 60 meters high at the dome peak

the inflatable system operates through continuous air pressure

the site-specific intervention also uses pink translucent plastic material with multiple connected sections

the plastic material permits light transmission while providing color filtration

the pink shade distributes evenly throughout the material

MATRIA also serves as a performance stage throughout the run of the Now or Never arts festival

the public art remains on-site until August 31st, 2025

project info:

name: MATRIA

collective: Penique Productions | @peniqueproductions

festival: Now or Never | @nowornever.melb

location: Royal Exhibition Building

address: 9 Nicholson St, Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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SoftPower is a land art installation by artist Gregory Orekhov that references the form and arrangement of sandbags, objects traditionally associated with conflict zones and disaster response. In their conventional use, sandbags function as barriers, embodying urgency, protection, and resistance. In this work, the familiar form is maintained, but the material qualities are altered. Air replaces sand, and the functional weight is removed.

The installation consists of inflated, pillow-like elements stacked into a circular arrangement. Rather than creating a defensive barricade, the configuration defines an enclosed yet accessible space intended for pause and reflection. The transformation of the sandbag motif from a tool of protection to a spatial framework repositions its meaning within a cultural and artistic context.

all images by Nikita Subbotin

Gregory Orekhov’s Sandbag Installation Explores Soft Power

Installed in France, the project engages with the country’s historical role in shaping global cultural influence through non-military means, aligning with the broader notion of ‘soft power.’ In this context, the work operates as a temporary architectural gesture that shifts emphasis from defense against external threats to the preservation of cultural and intellectual values.

SoftPower by artist Gregory Orekhov can be read as a spatial study in material reinterpretation, symbolic transformation, and the capacity of art to reframe objects associated with conflict into forms that suggest openness, concentration, and non-aggressive resilience.

inflated forms replace the weight of sand

a circle of stillness in place of a barricade

sandbag shapes reimagined in air and fabric

soft volumes arranged for pause and reflection

air-filled structures echo conflict-zone geometry

an installation exploring material reinterpretation

the sandbag motif reframed in cultural context

a temporary architecture of openness

SoftPower shifts focus from threat to preservation

a visual reference to structures of protection

from barricade to sanctuary

objects of conflict recast as spaces of rest

project info:

name: SoftPower

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Melbourne-based art and technology studio ENESS installs Iwagumi Air Scape, a large inflatable rock garden, in Prahran Square for its Australian premiere following a showing in Singapore. Inspired by the Japanese concept of Iwagumi, which expresses a cultural reverence for natural rock formations, the installation introduces a sculptural landscape that contrasts the city’s urban fabric with a representation of wilderness. By day, the inflatables are textured and shaped to resemble real rocks, surprising visitors with their inflatable nature. At night, the installation is illuminated with vibrant lighting, transforming the space into a glowing, immersive environment.

all images courtesy of Ben Weinstein

inflatable rocks transform melbourne’s public space

The installation by ENESS comprises sixteen air-filled inflatables textured with photographic prints of granite, creating the optical illusion of massive rock formations. Visitors can walk among these oversized forms and explore crevices and narrow passages up to 10 meters long, simulating the experience of traversing a canyon. As daylight fades, Iwagumi Air Scape by the Melbourne-based practice shifts through a vibrant lighting display paired with an interactive soundscape. Sounds of native birds, frogs, crickets, monkeys, bats, and mountain streams are triggered randomly as visitors move through the space, heightening the immersive quality of the installation. Ambient urban noises subtly intrude within the formation, underscoring the dialogue between natural and urban environments.

Iwagumi Air Scape in Prahran Square

A contemporary take on Japanese rock gardens

Artist and ENESS founder Nimrod Weis describes Iwagumi Air Scape as a work that surprises visitors when they realize the rock-like sculptures are in fact inflatable. The installation celebrates the Japanese tradition of closely observing natural compositions — particularly rock formations — that have inspired artforms such as rock gardens and aquascaping. By translating these forms into inflatable structures, ENESS explores the boundary between the virtual and physical, creating artificial objects that reconnect urban audiences with nature. Through its scale and presence, the installation invites contemplation of nature within a public urban setting, encouraging reflection on the relationship between city life and the natural environment.

the installation introduces a sculptural landscape that contrasts the city’s urban fabric

the inflatables are textured and shaped to resemble real rocks

the sixteen air-filled inflatables are textured with photographic prints of granite

visitors are surprised by their inflatable nature

the installation celebrates the Japanese tradition of closely observing natural compositions

visitors can walk among the oversized forms and explore crevices and narrow passages

the installation invites contemplation of nature

the installation is illuminated with vibrant lighting

Iwagumi Air Scape shifts through a vibrant lighting display

the lighting display is paired with an interactive soundscape

project info: 

name: Iwagumi Air Scape
designer: ENESS | @studioeness

location: Prahran Square, Melbourne

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Protoéditions and WINT team up for Project Ara, a design research project that turns inflatable structures into lightweight, adjustable packaging methods inspired by biomimicry. By using air, the teams explore the idea of producing structures that can protect objects and even architectural projects. They begin by looking at tiling in nature, such as patterns found around shells and skins, which often create sturdy surfaces. They’ve already worked with airtight membranes that can be shaped using machines controlled by computers, and the equipment has created patterns in fabric by sealing certain areas with heat or pressure, making them sealed. 

When air is added, the structures inflate and change shape, and the method is similar to how some biological systems grow. To realize the inflatable structure of Project Ara, Protoéditions and WINT use a digital welding process that allows the creation of air-ready shapes based on computer-generated patterns. These patterns are created using parametric design, which means changing one part of a design automatically changes the rest, helping make designs that adjust to different shapes and functions. The results give modular packaging methods that are light, flexible, and smart. They use their shape to provide protection, and some possible uses include building temporary walls or safety gear. These structures are not products yet, but they show how future objects could be built.

all images courtesy of Protoéditions and WINT

Reusable lightweight textile that can inflate and deflate

One aim of Project Ara is to use air to create new ways of protecting objects and building spaces. Current packaging and support systems often use hard materials, and once used, they are thrown away. They also do not fit different shapes well, so producing more to fit the objects is often a step taken. Project Ara tries to solve it by using inflatable structures that can change depending on the weight or shape of the item being protected. They inflate or deflate to take on the shape of what they’re protecting, and they’re also reusable, which helps reduce material waste. Digital tools also allow for different sizes for different needs, from small boxes to large structures.

Project Ara employs lightweight textile materials for the inflatable structures of the design teams. Protoéditions and WINT weld these fabrics into patterned shapes and fill them with air. By studying nature and using air as a key material, the project explores how design can become more responsive and efficient. The results could help in many areas, including architecture, transport, safety, and storage. The process also shows how inflatable, air-powered structures can replace old ways of building and protecting. So far, the project is yet to be realized.

the teams explore the idea of producing structures that can protect objects and even architectural projects

the style is inspired by patterns found around shells and skins, which often create sturdy surfaces

when air is added, the structures inflate and change shape

detailed view of the structures

the adjustable packaging is similar to how some biological systems grow

these patterns are created using parametric design

digital tools also allow for different sizes for different needs

the research employs lightweight textile materials

preview of the potential use of the research design

project info:

name: Project Ara

design: Protoéditions and WINT | @protoeditions.xyz, @wintdesignlab

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For their first-ever dual presentation in a single venue, Numen/For Use unveils two immersive, large-scale installations, Net Taichung and String Taichung, at the newly inaugurated CMP Inspiration Museum in Taichung, Taiwan. On view through November 2nd, 2025, the temporary works – one a kinetic, climbable web, the other a silent, geometric grid – transform Kengo Kuma’s softly lit interiors into an unfolding spatial narrative. Linked through translucent corridors, the installations invite visitors to move between two interconnected spatial and physical experiences.

Initially a deflated shell, each volume expands as air pressure inflates it, stretching the outer membrane and pulling the internal web of nets or ropes into tension. This self-contained technique bypasses any need for rigid framing or scaffolding. Visitors are encouraged to enter and interact with these suspended worlds. In Net Taichung, they climb, balance, and crawl through a network that sways gently with their movements. Meanwhile, String Taichung invites a slower gaze through a tight, white, three-dimensional grid that hovers in space, its calm order broken only by the shifting perspective of those who walk within.

all images courtesy of Numen/For Use

collapsible nets enable flexibility in Net and String Taichung

The exhibition space inside the CMP Inspiration Museum, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, contributes in shaping the experience of the visitor. Its pale surfaces and controlled lighting enhance the dreamlike quality of the projects by the design collective Numen/For Use. Wrapped in a thin white membrane, the inflated skins act like giant soft boxes that diffuse light into a glowing haze that flattens shadows and makes it unclear where the surface ends and depth begins. This creates a puzzling experience where you feel like you’re inside a place that seems vast and unreal, yet at the same time solid and intangible.

Both works are designed to be completely collapsible, so when deflated, the nets and rope grids fold into themselves and shrink to a much smaller size, making them easy to store, transport, and set up again later. When reinflated, they quickly regain their full strength and tension, able to support the movement and weight of people. With Net & String Taichung, Numen/For Use encourages us to think about impermanence, touch, and the quiet but important role air plays in their design.

Numen/For Use unveils two immersive, large-scale installations, Net Taichung and String Taichung

on view at the newly inaugurated CMP Inspiration Museum in Taichung, Taiwan

the temporary works transform Kengo Kuma’s softly lit interiors into an unfolding spatial narrative

a kinetic, climbable web

the installations invite visitors to move between two interconnected spatial and physical experiences

each volume expands as air pressure inflates it

a tight, white, three-dimensional grid that hovers in space

pale surfaces and controlled lighting enhance the dreamlike quality of the projects

the installations are wrapped in a thin white membrane

the inflated skins act like giant soft boxes

a glowing haze flattens shadows and makes it unclear where the surface ends and depth begins

project info:

name: Net Taichung & String Taichung

artist: Numen/For Use | @numenforuse

location: CMP Inspiration Museum | @cmpinspiration, Taichung, Taiwan

architect of venue: Kengo Kuma and Associates | @kkaa_official

curator: CMP Group 

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Untitled (project for Echigo-Tsumari) by Paola Pivi is a monumental installation leaning against the Grand Palais, featuring an oversized, vividly colored ladder that stretches more than 20 meters. The inflatable artwork is on view until September 7th, 2026, as part of Euphoria: Art is in the Air, an exhibition by the Balloon Museum that marks the long-anticipated reopening of the Grand Palais in Paris and reanimates the iconic venue with color and a spirit of joyful disorientation. First shown in 2015 within the historic courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (find designboom’s previous coverage here), the ladder reemerges here, positioned just outside the renovated historic building. Pivi’s intervention, playful and jarring, interrupts the classical symmetry of the space. Installed just outside the main volume of the building, the structure appears as an object entirely out of place – monumental, technicolor, and stripped of practical purpose. 

images courtesy of MASSIMODECARLO gallery unless stated otherwise

the colorful inflatable artwork subverts logic

Paola Pivi reimagines the familiar form of the ladder into something absurdly unfunctional, a surreal prop that invites a kind of metaphorical ascent. The Italian artist opens a moment of visual curiosity with a sudden disorientation that activates the senses and allows thought to drift beyond the strictures of logic. Untitled (project for Echigo-Tsumari) prompts viewers not to climb physically, but to elevate emotionally and imaginatively, led upward by color, form, and the destabilizing sense that reality has briefly lost its footing.

Known for transforming objects, animals, and spatial arrangements through paradox and scale shifts, Paola Pivi’s work challenges conventional meaning by subtly subverting context. Her interventions often draw from the everyday, ladders, animals, airplanes, then twist them into new dimensions where their usual roles no longer apply. This act of displacement gives her work a dreamlike, often humorous intensity. In the case of Untitled (project for Echigo-Tsumari), the artist abandons functionality in favor of wonder, projecting visitors into a temporary, emotionally resonant world governed less by gravity and more by possibility.

Untitled (project for Echigo-Tsumari) by Paola Pivi leans against the Grand Palais

Balloon Museum brings ‘Euphoria: Art is in the Air’ in paris

Following the success of Pop Air in 2022, the Balloon Museum returns to Paris with a new exhibition and a renewed sense of scale. Curated by Valentino Catricalà in collaboration with Antonella Di Lullo, Euphoria: Art is in the Air brings together 20 inflatable and immersive artworks by a range of international artists, including Philippe Parreno, Camille Walala, Ryan Gander, Martin Creed, alongside Paola Pivi. While continuing the Balloon Museum’s playful and participatory approach, the exhibition introduces an entirely different body of work from its previous edition, transforming the freshly renovated Grand Palais into a space for visual experimentation and public engagement. Two additional works by globally recognized artists will be revealed later in the show’s run, contributing to the evolving nature of this large-scale installation program.

the inflatable artwork is part of the Euphoria: Art is in the Air exhibition

Paola Pivi’s work challenges conventional meaning by subtly subverting context | image courtesy of Balloon Museum

Pivi’s intervention, playful and jarring, interrupts the classical symmetry of the space

the structure appears as an object entirely out of place

Paola Pivi reimagines the familiar form of the ladder

transforming the freshly renovated Grand Palais into a space for visual experimentation 

project info:

name: Untitled (project for Echigo-Tsumari)

artist: Paola Pivi | @paolapivi

location: Grand Palais | @le_grand_palais, Paris, France

exhibition: Euphoria: Art is in the Air

curators: Valentino Catricalà with Antonella Di Lullo

dates: June 6th – September 7th, 2025

organizer: Balloon Museum | @balloon_museum

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