Giant inflatable bubbles become otherworldly, mesmerizing performance venue

Each June, the Dutch island of Terschelling transforms into a stage for music, performance, and art during the Oerol Festival. This year, one of its pop-up venues is as incredible as the performances it contains. Comprising two enormous plastic bubbles connected by ring-like hallway, the structure is completely devoid of interior supports—they’re mere plastic shells filled with air. The effect is at once futuristic, playful, and marvelous.

The inflatable building is the work Plastique Fantastique, a German firm dedicated to creating pneumatic installations for public performance. Their work ranges from giant inflatable bubbles to more intimate spaces. But everything is made from lightweight plastic sheets welded together and pumped full of air.

“The transparent, lightweight, and mobile shell structures relate to the notion of activating, creating, and sharing public space, and involving citizens in creative processes,” the architects write on their website. “They are in many ways the simplest of structures—a skin that separates but also connects.”

For this “Loud Shadows” project, the architects created one transparent bubble connected by the circular hallway to a white opaque bubble, where the branches and leaves of surrounding trees press against the sides, like a world clouded in mist. At certain times of day, the white walls become a screen for shadows. See more images over on Designboom.

Via: Designboom