Cloud Chamber

Como si fuera una nube abstracta de madera o una estrella caída del cielo, la estructura de proyectores y pantallas está programada con imágenes secuenciales de formaciones de nubes. En contraste con el exterior sólido y rotundo, todas las superficies interiores están cubiertas por proyecciones fílmicas, ofreciendo así una experiencia de ingravidez e intangibilidad.
Pensamos en una cámara de niebla como un retiro desapegado de la vida cotidiana. El objetivo es lograr tanto una experiencia visual y física de tensión entre un exterior directo y expresivo y un interior atractivo, sorprendente y desafiante.
El exterior parece masivo y tectónico, una construcción de madera sólida, mientras que el interior es todo lo contrario, efímero e intangible. Las proyecciones de los fenómenos del cielo añaden profundidad visual, la idea de flotar en el espacio. Es un cuarto de escala íntima y a la vez infinito a través de la ficción que sugieren los paisajes de las nubes en movimiento.
Finalizada la exposición, la estructura será vaciada y se convertirá en un refugio para narrar cuentos para niños.

Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber

Cloud Chamber

Resembling an abstract wooden cloud or fallen star, this structure houses projectors and screens programmed with time-lapse imagery of cloud formations. Contrasting with the solid, emphatic exterior, every surface of the interior is covered with these film projections, thus offering an experience of weightlessness and intangibility. After the exhibition the structure should be hollowed out and become a children’s storytelling shelter.
We envisage the Cloud chamber as a retreat detached from everyday life, in part a direct response to the urban context of the V&A and its surroundings, but also a vehicle for the public to engage with and experience architectural scale and space at first hand. The aim is both a visual and physical experience of the tension between a direct and expressive exterior and a sensual, surprising and challenging interior.
The exterior appears massive and tectonic, a solid wood construction, while the inside is the opposite, ephemeral and intangible. Projections of sky phenomena add a visual depth, a notion of floating in space. It is a room of intimate scale, yet vast or even infinite through the suggestive fiction of moving cloud scapes.
The architecture of the cloud chamber is in part a result of the need to house the video projectors, as such its programme can be described as a light machine. At the same time it is an evocative piece encouraging further associations; from an abstract wooden cloud, to a fallen star, or an oversized hand crafted object.

Installations
We envisage that a series of time lapse loops will be developed and projected on screens inside the structure. Clouds can represent a state of peace and tranquility, but cloudy skies can also be dramatic and expressive (for examples please also see the short clips sent via email).
In addition sound (wind) and, if possible, climate (fresh air/cold) inside the Cloud chamber can further enhance the experience of a serene place, a refuge from everyday life.

Construction
Based on a shell structure of massive wood (approx. 80-120mm thick) and low tech media, we believe that the construction should fit with the stipulated budget.
The structure is possible to produce in modules off site and assemble in short time on location.

Second life
The wood structure can function as a play sculpture, possibly in a park like setting, close to a nursery school. In this state the screens and projections will be removed to leave a cave like interior space that can be explored. The protruding tubes will frame views of the sky and offer look outs to the exterior. The steepest surfaces will be stepped to form a seating gallery. Construction in massive wood will cater for long term durability when exposed to exterior climate.

Cloud Chamber

Section

Cloud Chamber

Plan

Cloud Chamber

Site plan