The Inflatable Moment: Pnuematics and Protest in ’68
June 30, 2010 | In: Architectural History
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The Inflatable Moment: Pnuematics and Protest in ’68
To a group of architecture students at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the turbulent year 1968, the idea of the inflatable held a promise of mobility, movement, energy, and escape. Seeking to overturn the inertia and oppression that they believed characterized mainstream architecture, the Utopie group (as they called themselves) designed a series of pneumatic buildings, furniture, and environments, all heavily influenced by American military structures and comic books as well as by
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1 Response to The Inflatable Moment: Pnuematics and Protest in ’68
Adam Greenfield
June 30th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Review by Adam Greenfield for The Inflatable Moment: Pnuematics and Protest in ’68
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So you thought that inflatable chairs were just goofy, disposable conversation pieces – the lava lamp of furniture, doomed to evoke hazy images of some late 60s lysergic idyll no matter how many times they come back in fashion. This book is here to blow that perception out of the water – to tell for the first time the fascinating story of inflatables: how the idea emerged from the US military, was baptized by the ludic “instant city” manifestoes of Archigram, and became bound up in the politics of the Situationist-inspired street protests of May ’68. There aren’t quite as many high-quality images as I’d have liked, and from time to time the book descends into unwonted theoryspeak, but I know of literally no other reference on this particular moment – one where optimism, liberation, and technology fused to suggest possibilities where none had existed before. Highly recommended.