Dutch firm DUS Architects have created a pavilion made of bubbles.

Visitors to a Rotterdam square had to construct the soapy walls themselves by lifting metal frames from five-sided steel pools.

Anyone standing in one of these pools became enclosed inside one of sixteen massive bubbles.

The pavilion was open to the public for less than three weeks and was completed as part of the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam, which continues until August.

We recently rounded up all our projects featuring bubbles, including a lamp that blows its own temporary shades. See them all here.

Here's some more explanation from DUS Architects:

Announcing: The Bubble Building!

The World’s most temporary pavilion entirely made out of soap bubbles, in Rotterdam, NL

At the very centre of breezy Rotterdam, lies the world’s most fragile and temporary pavilion: The Bubble Building. The temporary pavilion does justice to its name, as it is entirely made of soap bubbles.

On invitation by the IABR (International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam) and the ZigZagCity Festival, DUS architects designed a pavilion that instigates interaction, as the pavilion only appears when visitors build it themselves. The Bubble Building opened to the public on April 20th and can still be visited until Sunday May 6th, at the Karel Doormanhof in Rotterdam, NL.

The Bubble Building is made from 16 hexagonal shaped mirroring ponds; a shape derived from the natural shape of connected foam bubbles. Positioned in a square plan, the steel ponds create a 35 m2 reflective soap surface, strong enough to carry human weight. This creates a surreal scene, as visitors wearing rubber boots seem to stand on a reflective water surface. No sign of a pavilion, just a few handlebars that hint at what needs to be done.. What happens next, is an instant spectacle: When visitors pull up the handlebars, massive soap walls emerge in a split second. The soap walls appear as super slim glass, wavy, curvaceous, and always different; A multitude of soap walls and a rainbow of colours. Old and young join in to make the pavilion appear, over and over again.

Economic bubble

While the building is temporary, it refers to monumental architectural themes such as the re-building of Rotterdam. In order to make the building appear, you must erect it yourself, until it pops again. This way, the Bubble Building also is a reference to the current bursting of the economic bubble. Moreover, the Bubble Building is about collective building, as it takes at least two people to erect one cell of the pavilion. The more people join in, the larger the pavilion becomes.

Mental Monument

Visitors are invited to eternalize their own momentary version of the pavilion in a bubble snapshot, and upload these images to the ZigZagCity website. Online, a multitude of different bubble buildings appear. In these pictures lies the true beauty of the pavilion: the remembrance. As ultimately, the Bubble Building is about beauty.

It is said that temporary experiences are perceived as more beautiful, because they only last for a short time. Rotterdam philosopher Erasmus said ‘Homo Bulla Est’ – ‘man is a soap Bubble’. Life is momentary. So go build the Bubble Building, because it will only be there for an instant!

The post The Bubble Building by DUS Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2012: Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc presented a set of outdoor furniture and lamps like huge pink bubbles at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan.

The Summertime collection includes folding chairs with metallic pink frames and black leather seats upholstered with material normally used for yachts, and a table with turnkeys at the sides so the top flips upright to become a blackboard.

The Bubble lamps are blown from pink glass with black holders and come in 45 or 60cm diameters.

See more work by Nika Zupanc on Dezeen here.

Bubble lamps were also presented by Swedish designers Front at Spazio Rossana Orlandi, although theirs blow actual soap bubbles every few seconds - check it out here.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile took place from 17 to 22 April. See all our stories about Milan 2012 here, and check out photos on Facebook and Pinterest.

Top image is by Saša Hess. Product photos are by Dragan Arrigler.

Here are some more details from Zupanc:

Another year, and a bunch of new poems for taking Milan out of its comfort zone. This time, Nika Zupanc is bringing with her a squat of innocent looking pieces that mindfully explore the limits of the industry when it comes to emotional effect and the juxtaposition of materials.

Zupanc has no intention of taking anything lightly so she makes something as forgiving as summer a hostage for the quest of finding novel expressions to transgress the rationalism, utilitarism and practical common sense. To accomplish this, she uses her poetic judgment, inner battles with stereotypes and long-lasting affairs with technologies.

The ultimate design repertoire, consisting of a lamp, a chair and a table, are now taken into a completely wild territory: the summery outdoors. Numerous interpretations of their generic nature equip the objects with a disturbing beauty and defamiliarization of collective summer memories brings an uncanny allure to the Summertime collection. The Bubble lamps are made of an extraordinary pink glass, produced by Vistosi brand with centenary tradition in glass of Murano for Nika Zupanc. But the flourish blow up of rosa antico is what makes them an intruder to the mise-en-scène of dying glory of Lord Byron's Venice. Foldable Summertime chairs with their red gold embroidered seat cushions are unsettlingly engaging, while the Summertime table in its noir surface and toy-like winding mechanism hides the potential of an impromptu blackboard or a mirror, your own private vanity fair.

Summertime

The sweet feeling of forever and the permanent bitter lack of nowness are the main characteristics that Nika Zupanc extracts from summer and multiplies in her objects du jour.

The Summertime pieces are stripped down to pure form, to their utilitarian value only to be inflated with poetic longing.

In the quest of finding new ways to transgress the practical common sense and to test its limits of emotive effects, Zupanc argues technologies and ways predominantly associated with the so called boys club and their playground. To accomplish this, she uses her poetic judgment, inner battles with stereotypes and long-lasting affairs with technologies.

The repertoire with which Nika Zupanc likes to play hard consists of a lamp, a chair and a table. A true classic is this time taken into a completely wild territory: the summery outdoors, resulting in numerous interpretations of their generic nature. The iconic summer elements and sounds of seagulls have to survive in a new context. Defamiliarization of viewer's perception of these memories is something that brings an uncanny allure to the collection.

The Bubble lamps are made of an extraordinary pink glass, produced by Vistosi brand with centenary tradition in glass of Murano for Nika Zupanc. But the flourish blow up of rosa antico is what makes them an intruder to the mise-en-scène of dying glory of Lord Byron's Venice. Foldable Summertime chairs with their red gold embroidered ancors and tubular metal frames are unsettlingly engaging, while the Summertime table in its noir surface and toy-like winding mechanism hides the potential of an impromptu blackboard or a mirror, your own private vanity fair.

Bubble lamp - a natural born intruder

Taking Venetian street lamps for a hostage of its poetic needs is what you will come to expect from this illuminator of the most mischievous kind. That it unprecedentedly blows up the proportions of Murano glass and does so in pink implies its role of an invader to the mise-en-scène of Lord Byron‘s Venice. Perfectly shaped, it silently glows with no buzz or fuzz, like it is just waiting for the next vaporetto. Its misplaced beauty is noticed instantly, even from across the room.

Materials: glass, metal
Glass blowing produced by Vistosi brand with centenary tradition in glass of Murano.
Colours: pink glass, black lamp holder
Lamp diameter: 60 and 45 cm

Summertime chair - the disruption of the outdoors

With its strong foldable tubular metal frame it could have been just another well-behaved object, resisting the demanding life in lush gardens, however, it has a more subversive role to play. Dipped in red gold colour it brings an uncanny allure to the sweet tackiness of summer memories. In the meantime the embroidery of an iconic summer visual, an anchor, stirs up a palette of novel connotations, finally allowing you to have an affair with this post-suburban bad boy gone red gold.

Materials: tubular metal frame, shark outdoor textile, embroidery
Colours: black upholstery, red gold frame

Summertime table - an afternoon painted noir

Designed as a surface of purification and temptation, it makes a staggering first impression and a lifelong obsession. Of course it can take all the challenges of a sleek coffee table, but its toy-like winding mechanisms hint at the potential of switching perspectives. On the one side it is, how very cerebral, an impromptu blackboard for taking down emotional bits and bobs. On the other, your own private vanity fair with a full length mirror, waiting for the first blink of an eye.

Materials: tubular metal frame, enameled tin plates, mirror foil
Colours: blackboard, red gold legs

The post Summertime by Nika Zupanc appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen archive: this week in Milan a lamp that blows bubbles attracted a lot of attention, so we've grouped together all of our stories about bubbles made from soap, plastic or otherwise. See all the stories »

See all our archive stories »

The post Dezeen archive: bubbles appeared first on Dezeen.

Over the 50,000-hour life of the bulb the lamp will blow over three million bubble shades.

Presented for new Dutch lighting brand Booo, the Surface Tension Lamp is on show at Spazio Rossana Orlandi.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile takes place from 17 to 22 April. See all our stories about Milan 2012 here.

See all our stories about Front here.

Here's some more information from Front:

Surface Tension Lamp

A bubble is brief, and bursts at your touch. But while it lasts, it catches the light and reflects the room like a multi-coloured temporary structure. We wanted to create a constantly changing lamp that combines the most ephemeral of lampshade with an LED light source that will last for 50 000 hours. In the time it takes the LED to burn out, the lamp will have had 3 million different globe shades.

The post Surface Tension Lamp
by Front appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2012: these knobbly seats by Belgian designer Maarten De Ceulaer are on show at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan this week.

Each piece in the Mutation series is made from foam spheres, cut so they fit together, attached to a frame and coated in rubber or flocked.

De Ceulaer's work is also on show at the Triennale di Milano and as part of IN Residence at Ventura Lambrate.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile takes place from 17 to 22 April. See all our stories about Milan 2012 here.

Photographs are by Nico Neefs.

Here are some more details from Maarten De Ceulaer:

Mutation Series

The pieces in this series look like they weren’t made by hands, but have grown to their present form organically. They might be the result of a mutation in cells, or the result of a chemical or nuclear reaction. Perhaps it’s a virus or bacteria that has grown dramatically out of scale. The Mutation pieces make you look at furniture in a different way.

Maybe one day we would be able to grow a piece of furniture like we breed or clone an animal, and manipulate it’s shape like a bonsai tree. On the other hand, the project can be seen as an experimental review of classic furniture upholstery. It reminds us of the famous and iconic deep buttoned (Chesterfield) sofa's, interpreted in a highly contemporary and sculptural way.

Instead of upholstering springs and foam with leather or textile, these pieces are created by carefully composing patterns with cut-offs of foam spheres of various sizes, and applying them onto a structure. In the end the entire piece gets coated, with a durable rubber or tactile velvet-like finish. It is hardly possible to ever recreate such a specific pattern, so every piece is completely unique.

The post Mutation by Maarten De Ceulaer appeared first on Dezeen.