Anylisis of raumlaborberlin Pneumatic Projects

Text: Gergely Hory

The primary goal of this study is to analyse the construction strategies and structural solutions of contemporary and temporary action-like architectural interventions typically implemented in public places as well as to compare them with their historic prototypes and sources of inspiration. It is a highly varied and comprehensive field of interest as such, so we shall only focus on a prominent segment of the activities of a single group of architects, namely the projects of raumlaborberlin using pneumatic structures because of concerns of transparency on the one hand and limitations of space here on the other. The raumlaborberlin was founded in 1999 by a team of young architects in Berlin as a respond to counteract the multitude of massive and aggressive, typically superficially conceived construction projects that hindered the social, spatial and aesthetic renewal of the city. Despite investments that are rigid, large-scale ones as far as their usefulness is concerned, this generation of young architects started to think about urban space following a different approach: they planned mobile temporary interventions by using simple technologies that have the capacity to exploit and extend potentials of urban spaces that are hidden in them and have been untapped so far.