Clemson University architecture students develop inflatable “clouds” for Moogfest

From a press release:

Clemson University architecture students develop inflatable “clouds” for Moogfest

Event-goers at this year’s Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina, will see clouds in the air — five, to be precise — no matter what the weather proves to be.

That is because 17 Clemson University architecture students have been given the task of creating an engaging community space for the five-day festival [April 23-27], an outdoor location for attendees and the community-at-large to gather, rest, relax and recharge — both themselves and, if needed, their cell phones.  And what the students have come up with is a take on the “cloud” concept.

But instead of their “cloud” being a place to store ones technology, Clemson’s “cloud” will be a place for those to interact in a relaxed setting. And what better way to design it than by having it all under actual clouds?

“We are creating five inflatable ‘clouds’ that are a physical expression of the digital information cloud concept,” explained student Sarah Davis [Chattanooga, TN]. “Basically, the canopy consists of pixelated clouds that will be suspended by cords. And beneath the clouds, we’re creating a real-life ‘cloud network.’ People will come to interact, charge their phones, and take pictures with graphic backdrops that we have designed for posting on Instagram and Facebook. We envision a place where people can interact in person as well as through virtual methods.”

The project, named “Patch,” is inspired by the event’s namesake, Bob Moog, who was known for creating innovative ways of “patching” sound waves together with a synthesizer. Thus, within every aspect of their design, Clemson’s students aim to “patch” [i.e. connect] individual people, ideas and places together to create a unified, collective entity. This connectivity appears within each of the four layers of the project [ground scape, cloud scape, user scape and media scape].

“We knew from the initial stages that we wanted to provide festival-goers and locals with a sheltered space, so we designed the  project in a series of layers,” explained fellow architecture student Haley Fitzpatrick [Batavia, OH]. “These layers contain interactive elements such as custom stools and charging stations that encourage connection between users. This design concept intuitively got us thinking of the sky and the clouds as a layer within the project. We also drew inspiration from the City of Asheville and its surrounding environments, such as the low-lying clouds around the mountains. What we’ve come up with is pretty intriguing.”

What they have come up with is also pretty unique.

Five (5) suspended 20’X30′ ‘clouds’ will appear to be floating over a 16,000-square-foot area. Each ‘cloud’ will be suspended by 5,000 feet of paracord, and will anchor to nine mobile mini storage containers. The ‘clouds,’ themselves, are 8,000 square feet of inflated Tyvek [breathable fabric] canopies — and weigh a total of only three (3) pounds. Underneath the ‘clouds’ will be five (5) fixed-plywood charging stations [for charging cell phones and encouraging interaction], and an interactive virtual game where visitors can upload images to Instagram to try and win a ticket to an exclusive Moog concert. Eighteen (18) 4’X10′ vinyl super graphics will cover the sides of the nine storage containers, that will also be used as place-making objects. Visitors will also be able to rest on 125 custom-made plywood pixel stools. And each of the aforementioned items will be situated on 2,500 square-feet of grey Astroturf surface treatment, to provide a designated space for the gathering.  The pixelation of the clouds, stools, Astroturf and super-graphics is also reminiscent of the 8-bit era and the “Patch” concept of merging many individual, unique units [pixels] together to make an overall image.

And all of the above is being created, produced, and built by a combination of 21-to-25-year-old undergraduate and graduate students, utilizing the state-of-the-art technology students have access to in Clemson’s School of Architecture’s Digital Design Shop. They include Courtnay Bourque [Myrtle Beach, SC], Austin Diehl [Newburgh, IN], Vanesa Ewais [Jacksonville, FL], Andrew Galloway [Bonners Ferry, ID], Lauren Gryder [Winston-Salem, NC], Marcus Hebron [Mauldin, SC], Tim Keesee [Greenville, SC], Josh Mace [Lake Wiley, SC], Edgar Mozo [Greenville, SC], Andrew Musulin [Hilton Head, SC], Shane Smith [Charleston, SC], Michael Strople [Charleston, SC], Nick Tafel [Columbia, SC], Daniel Taylor [Sharon, SC] and Ian Zapata [Spartanburg, SC].

“For us, this is just what it will be like when we get into the work force,” Mozo said. “You have a client, and you have to meet their deadlines, and you need to get materials … this is real. We’re in production right now on something big. We’re not just working on a class project, but we’re working on something for a client. It’s almost like we’re working on a real project. Well, it is a real project.”

“For the students, it’s basically Real World 101,” professor Doug Hecker added. “As the instructor, I just put some questions out there, but the students have come up with all the concepts. They make mistakes, as I have made, and we’ve gone back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth on quite a few things until we were ready to pull the trigger on the concept, just like in the real world. It has been a great experience for them.”