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Article from issue 12/2009 »Experimental Building«

Mobile Action Space

documentation p. 1336 - 1337
Architect raumlabor berlin |

Drafts
1:20 Section
1:400 Elevations
1:400 Plan
1:400 Section

In their bid to upgrade desolate urban spaces in Berlin with art, the architects sought to integrate the public into their schemes with spectacular temporary events. “Kitchen Monument” is based on the idea that important issues are often discussed at home around the kitchen table. To talk about relevant topics in the public realm, therefore, one would have to instal a kitchen table there. The need for a low-cost form of weather protection that could be simply transported, erected and removed again led to the creation of a pneumatic structure. Erecting and dismantling this structure is all part of the performance.
Accommodating up to 120 persons, the space can be used as a conference hall or cinema, as a dormitory or steam baths. For a whole week, the closed building hut stands in the city like a mysterious abstract sculpture, with sounds of a feast coming from inside. When the doors are opened, one sees the loudspeakers internally, and the function of the space for storing the pneumatic membrane becomes clear. Unrolled and inflated, the skin resembles a translucent Zeppelin
18 metres long and 6.5 metres high. It can be free-standing, squeezed under a bridge or pressed against trees or buildings. From the inside, one has a distorted view of the outside world. The construction vehicle serves as an entrance lock; and a fan beneath the entrance ramp keeps the membrane filled with air.