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www.dezeen.com: Called Floatastic, the structure was designed by Connecticut firm Qastic for a wedding ceremony. They intended to create a temporary shelter without imposing any loads on the ground.
This is an interesting concept for theatrical design. Instead of trying to make light strong spans that can be flown from picks above just making solids that can contain enough gas to make them float would be a clever solution to some design challenges. Finding a cost effective way to adapt this to theatre might be complicated though. Autodesk Inventor has some sheet metal features that might be able to be adapted to create the flat pattern for some of these effects. It would also be able to ensure accuracy of volume calculations on complex shapes. Finding local sources for the gas to fly large effects at a reasonable price might also be a limitation and with the price of helium and most other noble gasses on the rise it might not be the most practical scenery method.
This is pretty cool! There can be many ways that this method of creating a "jelly fish-like" structure can be used and not just for weddings. Though it does mimic the jelly fishes movements pretty well, as I was reading the comments made on the article and someone posted about Kengo Kuma and associates floating tea house. ( http://kkaa.co.jp/works/floating-tea-house/ ) This, I think, is more impressive because it uses the weight of the fabric to keep the balloon from flying off. I don't think Kengo Kuma's "structure" would work outdoors in a park. His whole idea for the tea house was that it could travel, but it will be very hard to manage when the wind picks up or when it starts to rain.
This "Floatastic" is a really interesting idea that brings a lot of new ideas to the table. A lighter than air building is something that we don't see in our everyday lives, but after some thought we see that there are a lot of advantages to this sort of building. One example is that it is very easy to carry to the location and to take back. This could be useful in some kind of camping tent. Another advantage is that you don't need to put any load on the ground. This could be useful on mud, sand, swamps, ice, and many other odd types of ground.
The design that they created was very well suited to the wedding setting, but I don't think that the idea's about lighting than air buildings need to be limited to that setting. I would be really interested to see if it's possible to make a lighter than air building that feels solid and strong (the way we think of banks). It's would be an interesting challenge.
3 comments:
This is an interesting concept for theatrical design. Instead of trying to make light strong spans that can be flown from picks above just making solids that can contain enough gas to make them float would be a clever solution to some design challenges. Finding a cost effective way to adapt this to theatre might be complicated though. Autodesk Inventor has some sheet metal features that might be able to be adapted to create the flat pattern for some of these effects. It would also be able to ensure accuracy of volume calculations on complex shapes. Finding local sources for the gas to fly large effects at a reasonable price might also be a limitation and with the price of helium and most other noble gasses on the rise it might not be the most practical scenery method.
This is pretty cool! There can be many ways that this method of creating a "jelly fish-like" structure can be used and not just for weddings. Though it does mimic the jelly fishes movements pretty well, as I was reading the comments made on the article and someone posted about Kengo Kuma and associates floating tea house. ( http://kkaa.co.jp/works/floating-tea-house/ ) This, I think, is more impressive because it uses the weight of the fabric to keep the balloon from flying off. I don't think Kengo Kuma's "structure" would work outdoors in a park. His whole idea for the tea house was that it could travel, but it will be very hard to manage when the wind picks up or when it starts to rain.
This "Floatastic" is a really interesting idea that brings a lot of new ideas to the table. A lighter than air building is something that we don't see in our everyday lives, but after some thought we see that there are a lot of advantages to this sort of building. One example is that it is very easy to carry to the location and to take back. This could be useful in some kind of camping tent. Another advantage is that you don't need to put any load on the ground. This could be useful on mud, sand, swamps, ice, and many other odd types of ground.
The design that they created was very well suited to the wedding setting, but I don't think that the idea's about lighting than air buildings need to be limited to that setting. I would be really interested to see if it's possible to make a lighter than air building that feels solid and strong (the way we think of banks). It's would be an interesting challenge.
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