Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Inflatable Space structures workshop - Ithra Tanween 2019

While the students of the current semester are busy with their concepts our Dr. Bucky Lab sneaked out for a week to co-host a workshop at the Tanween Festival in the city of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia.


The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture also known as Ithra, developed by Saudi Aramco hosted for the second time an impressive festival. During the festival around 75 workshops were organised and Eric Schrijver who is also working for architects of air was asked to host a workshop for inflateable architecture. While the festival was already hosting a Luminarium one of the inflatable art projects from architects of air a workshop for students of architecture was a great addition.

Within 4 days Eric and Marcel worked together with 10 students from small scale models towards bigger inflatable structures which they not only tested in the studio but also in the Ithra building itself. The festival was a blast, the workshop a big pleasure and the building itself that was designed from Snohetta a mind blowing piece of architecture.

All in all we came home with a lot of memories of an exciting week in a fascinating country. Here some impressions from the building, the workshop and the festival.

here also a link to a short video to give a better impression