Bubble: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden by Siller Scofidio + Renfro

The ‘Bubble’ is an inflatable conceivd Siller Scofidio + Renfro architects is an event space planned for the cylindrical courtyard of the Hirshhorn Museum. In respectful dialogue with the Modernist icon originally designed by Gordon Bunshaft in 1974, the Bubble is an architecture of air; a pneumatic stucture enclosed only by a transluscent membrane that sueezes into the void of the building and oozes out of the top and beneath its mass.

In contrast to the familiar strategy of roofing over courtyards of institutionals buildings.The Bubble produces a soft building inside of a hard one in which existing and new spaces, both interior and exterior are playfully interwined. The ephemeral srtucture is erected once a year for two months. The additional 11 000 sf of sheltered space accomodates audiences of 500-800 for array of public events including performinf arts, fil, lectures and debates. Its form is shaped by a series of cable rings that constrict the membrane, pulling it away from the inner wall of the courtyard while other cables tether it into place. The resulting contours act acoustically and produce changing shafts and pockets of outdoor space experienced from the ground and the galleries on the second and third level.