Indoor Cloud Generator

‘Cloudscapes’ is a collaboration between German climate engineering firm Transsolar and the architects of Tetsuo Kondo for the 12th International Venice Architecture Biennial.

Their indoor installation consists of a surreal layer of artificial clouds in the Arsenale exhibition space and claims to explore the “poetic nature of clouds” above the heads of of the exhibition visitors. Cloudscapes produces three microclimates in the same building by pumping three layers of air into the space: cold dry air at the bottom, hot humid air in the middle and hot dry air at the top.

Designboom explains:

“To fully experience the immaterial lightness of clouds, a winding system of ramps is situated in the middle of the room, allowing the viewers to feel and touch the clouds by physically entering it, walking over it, and back down again. This meandering pathway aims to show all three layers of distinct climates in the room. (…) By replacing pressure differences and temperature gradients, all instances of the structure offers a unique atmosphere with different qualities of light.”