Blur Building - Diller and Scofidio

 

I think a proper conclusion to this post is a building that takes all of the representational devices of the previous five projects and takes it one step further by creating a building that actually is a cloud:

Unlike the projects above where the interpretation of an atmospheric condition is used in order to achieve a certain design clarity and concept, the Blur building’s intent is to create something that is indiscernible and decidedly low tech. Jets at the base of the building suck water up from the lake and pass it through hundreds of nozzles to create a mist. The actual structure is nothing more then a series of steel ramps and platforms with a bar in the center so you can grab a cocktail in the middle of a cloud:

However, this form is completely imperceivable once one is “inside” the cloud. The constantly shifting mist coupled with the white noise created by the jets creates a fairly disorienting experience; instead of being highly aware of a discernible tectonic environment, one is surrounded by something that is, per the architects, “formless, featureless, depthless, scaleless, massless, surfaceless, and dimensionless.” It’s a non-building, who’s sense of enclosure is dictated entirely by an atmospheric condition. Check the video below for the pavilion in action:


The architect’s use these aspects to their advantage, and guests are given special raincoats fitted with wireless communicators that omit sounds and project light based on your proximity and similarity to other guests (each visitor fills out a survey before entering, so the device knows which characteristics people have in common):

Unfortunately, the pavillion was only a temporarily instalation for the Swiss expo in 2002, and was later dismantled (and possibly sold, to some guy in Switzerland who now has a cloud producting ovaloid hooked up to his kiddie pool). For further reading, be sure to check out a book on the building Blur: The Making of Nothing.