Second Home will install a blow-up dome in east London this autumn to host creative workshops and yoga sessions for a day.
The creative incubator and event group’s pneumatic PVC structure – designed by Spanish practice Dosis – rises over eight-metres-high, and can be reconfigured from a single bubble into several rooms using a system of membranes and zippers.
Dubbed Second Dome, the inflatable installation features a transparent canopy, spotted floor and bright yellow walls that are designed to add a ‘sense of cosiness and warmth’.
‘Even though we are diminishing the limits of contact, between nature and inside the structure, the artificial and the natural, we also had the intention of having a very artificial environment that is somehow quite alien,’ says Dosis co-founder Ignacio Peydro. ‘It’s not a space that you can find everywhere.’
Second Home originally commissioned the dome for business and technology event Founders Forum 2016, but plans to reinflate it in London Fields on 1 October. A day-long programme of community events, including film screenings, animation and design workshops and a wellness programme will be open to local children and families.
Adds Second Home co-founder Sam Aldenton: ‘There’s an ephemerality that comes with something inflatable, in the sense that what goes up must come down. Architecture has the opportunity to be experimental, and when you’re not working with a fixed building you can push the boundaries that little bit further.’
After its stint in London Fields, Second Home plans to tour the structure around various locations in London.
It’s not the only architectural pop-up the company owns. Second Home previously bought the brightly coloured 2015 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Selgascano, which it plans to turn into a community art space in LA.
Read next: Selgascano designs the ‘no-phone’ Libreria bookstore in London for Second Home
