Pneumatic Architecture: Transparency and Lightness in Built Environments
An article on ArchDaily explores the intersection of pneumatic architecture and environmental connection, drawing on Italo Calvino's 'Six Memos for the Next Millennium' to frame lightness as a value. Historically, transparency became inherent to modern architecture through the shift from load-bearing walls to glass envelopes. Inflatable architecture, using textiles or plastics and air as a structural system, links transparency to lightness and impermanence, leaving temporary traces on landscapes. The piece references Greek mythology, specifically Perseus's feat of using a bronze shield as a mirror to avoid Medusa's gaze, as a metaphor for relying on what is lightest—wind and clouds—and indirect vision. The article argues that this approach recognizes multiple atmospheres of application in the built environment.
Key facts
- Italo Calvino's 'Six Memos for the Next Millennium' explores lightness from a literary perspective.
- Calvino argues that removing weight produces lightness, which is a value, not a defect.
- Transparency has been naturalized as an inherent condition of modern architecture.
- The shift from heavy load-bearing walls to lightweight glass envelopes blurred interior and exterior boundaries.
- Inflatable architecture uses textiles or plastics as main materials and air as a structural system.
- Transparency in inflatable architecture is linked to lightness and impermanence.
- Perseus, assisted by Hades, Hermes, and Athena, used winged sandals and a bronze shield to defeat Medusa.
- The search for lightness in the built environment recognizes more than a single atmosphere of application.
Entities
Artists
- Italo Calvino
Institutions
- ArchDaily