bureau A inflates shelter, a temporary club in switzerland

‘shelter’ is a temporary pavilion designed by bureau A for the annual meeting of the swiss architectural association (BSA/FAS). referencing the shape of underground shelters, the inflatable structure hosts a small club with a bar and a dance floor. the whole structure and the furniture used in the interiors are entirely made of black PVC membrane. as soon as the party is over, the installation can be quickly deflated and transported to the next location.

(above) image © dylan perrenoud 
(main) image © dylan perrenoud 

for this project, bureau A researched the underground, where architecture searches for new territories under the skin of the earth; bachelard woke up the right to the unconscious spatial exploration of the underground through the figure of the cellar; virgilio unveiled the potential of semi-buried architecture in his ‘bunker archeology’; colomine brought up to light the hidden architectures and psychotic strategies of the american society during the second world war in her book ‘domesticity at war’.

 
image © dylan perrenoud

the underground fascinates and completes the hygienic and pan-optical world of the over-ground. for one night, the black hole of a neat and well-organized society is revealed as a potential for distortion, a potential to let go and provoke, with a slight smile, the unsaid and the sweat. the mysterious black vessel lands in the modern space of a highly engendered concrete vault; a great spatial condition to explore the corners of what is hidden.

image © dylan perrenoud

image © dylan perrenoud

image © dylan perrenoud

image © dylan perrenoud 

image © dylan perrenoud

image © dylan perrenoud

image © dylan perrenoud

plan and elevation

survey

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: juliana neira | designboom