Cloud Pavilion
2024
A temporary event space inspired by cloud formations. Translucent ETFE membrane panels shift and billow with the wind, creating a structure that is never the same shape twice. The pavilion was commissioned for a summer arts festival and designed to be fully demountable.
The primary structure is a lightweight steel cable net tensioned between six tapered masts. The ETFE cushions are pneumatically inflated to different pressures throughout the day, responding to wind speed sensors mounted at the mast tips. When gusts exceed 40 km/h, the panels partially deflate and flatten against the cables.
At night, LED arrays embedded between the membrane layers turn the pavilion into a slow-pulsing lantern. The light programme is driven by a real-time weather API — warmer colours on calm evenings, cooler tones when rain approaches. The effect is somewhere between architecture and atmospheric phenomenon.
Every component was designed for disassembly. After the festival, the masts were repurposed as light poles in a nearby park, the membrane panels became shade canopies for a school playground, and the cable net was re-tensioned as a climbing structure. Nothing went to landfill.
