Diller
+ Scofidio, this New York based architecture firm has won a competition
for a ephemeral structure that will be part of the expo of 2002 in the
waters of lake Neuchatel in the small city of Yverdon-les-bains, Switzerland.
The Blur building will be hovering over these waters; an artificially produced
cloud will cover a tensegrity structural system that will be hardly visible.
This
cloud will be achieved by the use of several sprinklers around the building
that will evenly spray a constant mist of water. This building will be
three hundred feet long, two hundred feet deep and 30 feet tall. Visitors
will enter through ramps to this café and multimedia space. There
will be a partially submerged sushi restaurant. Inside this radial cloudy
structure the will be a cylindrical panorama of 12 video projections that
will take place in the middle of the building. On the highest level of
the building an opened observation deck will let the visitors have a view
of the lake without being obstructed by the steam of the cloud.
The
blur building is well on its way of being rendered a reality, under a budget
of $ 7.5 million, with a design and engineering team that includes West-8
(Rotterdam), Morphing Systems (Zurich) and others. The most important legacy
that the Blur Building and the Holland pavilion at the expo 2000 give to
all the present creative minds is, as Aaron Betsky says, “Imagine it, and
it can be built.”
Notes: Architecture Magazine. April 2000.
Wired News. Archive 8.02-Feb 2000.
For an interesting list of undone projects (including a multimedia installation
for the Florida Panthers Arena at Fort Lauderdale, FL called Cold War)
visit: http://www.wirednews.com/wired/archive/8.02/diller.html