Mist in the Garden

John Hill
23. August 2021
Photo: AUTHOS
Photo: AUTHOS

The designers describe NEBULOSUS as an "immersive 'structure'" that "provides an ultra-sensory, spatial-boundary-exploring experience for visitors" to the garden grounds. Taking up approximately 50 square meters, the installation expands and contracts based on the winds and other weather conditions. It is a respite from the summer heat during the day and a spectacle at night, when "a matrix of shaded lines and angles emerges," per the designers, thanks to projection mapping.

Photo: AUTHOS

NEBULOSUS is one of twelve installations in Design Biennale Zurich, which takes on the theme "Clash," a topic that was actually selected before the coronavirus pandemic and the conflicts that have defined life around the world over the last year and a half. (Susanna Koeberle takes a look at the overall Biennale at Swiss-Architects, in German.) AUTHOS and Stella Speziali align their installation with climate change and the "impossibility, now more than ever, of controlling our climate."

Photo: AUTHOS

With its construction of misting nozzles forming vapor clouds in the garden, NEBULOSUS obviously recalls Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Blur Building, which was built for Expo 2002 in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. Described recently as "one of the iconic architectural events of the new millennium," Blur enabled Expo visitors to don raincoats and immerse themselves in a "cloud" over Lake Neuchâtel, eerily foreshadowing the weather events that would come to define much of 21st-century life.

Photo: AUTHOS

Visit the Design Biennale Zürich website for more information on NEBULOSUS and the special display being held during the Long Night of Museums on the night of September 4th.

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