The architecture of the future

"We wanted to create a dream and sensory world. A space that discourages and challenges the user, forcing him to rethink his way of relating to architecture ", explains Hugo Cifre, an Ibizan architect who with his team, formed by Margarita Fernández, Miguel Ángel Maure, Álvaro Gomis, Javier Guerra and Raquel Ocón , have created the project of a inflatable pavilion Space [The Cloud] of 1,000 square meters built only with three materials: fabric, salt and air. "We were organizing the INCM Madrid 2016, an event that brings together 200 architecture students from across Europe within the framework of EASA (the European Assembly of Architecture Students, in its acronym in English), and among other needs we had to cover the to accommodate these students who were going to move to Madrid, "says Hugo Cifre.

On the occasion of this event they came up with the idea of building an ephemeral, but resolutive structure: "Madrid is a very bureaucratic city and getting the cession of a space to house these students was considered impossible. Five months after the arrival of the European guests we realized that we were not going to get them to give us a space with the features we needed. That was the moment in which we said: 'we are architects, if nobody is going to give us space, we will build it ourselves'. From there, we focused on the design and construction of the project, "explains Cifre. The team has allocated 150,000 euros to the pavilion. These young architects presented the project to the EASA assembly, where they won and had a year to raise funds to start up the pavilion. "We presented the project to large companies in the construction sector, pneumatics, lighting and aerodynamics, such as Cemex, Osram, Gandia Blasco, Sika, HNA or Sodeca, among others, and they liked the idea so much that they got involved financing it economically or through the transfer of material. "

The fabric of the pavilion is made of a light, fire-retardant, waterproof material with a UVA filter. "To inflate it we use six industrial fans regulated by a pressure sensor by which we automatically increase or decrease the air flow to maintain an overpressure compared to the outside," they say. The pavilion, as they relate, remains standing thanks to the overpressure exerted by the air on the fabric. "There is no rigid support structure, which allowed us to reduce costs and create a totally transparent space." To avoid condensation they designed a saline soil that absorbs moisture "while reinforcing this dreamlike and unreal quality so characteristic of space," they add.