Cloud 9 Bubble Building

[Eric Hunting]

http://inhabitat.com/cloud-9s-incredible-inflatable-bubble-building-opens-in-barcelona/

I've often had this fantasy -a sort of parallel to the 'outquisition'- of a post-industrial future where neo-tribal communities appropriate the abandoned suburban 'office parks' of the failed 20th century economy and convert their buildings by eco-tech retrofit into palatial 'bolo-like micro-arcos, the different functional zones of a community organized by floor level. This building just opened in Barcelona is almost exactly how I imaged these to be -the original structures stripped to a simple series of open decks, a new enclosure 'skin' supported by retrofit space frames, an opening of perimeter spaces into open terraces, integral rainwater catchment, PVs and hydroponic gardens, open plan dwellings based on retrofit partitions, etc.

I once tried to get a comic artist friend of mine interested in doing a comic book series based on the theme of a Maker 'tribe' supported by a shadowy secret benefactor (as well as, at different times, other counter-cultural tribes of the emergent post-industrial future) that would travel the world to solve various communities' problems, avert or abate environmental disasters, and engage in geopolitical monkey-wrenching using their unique eco-tech/open-tech skills. They would have had a series of these 'bolo-like HQs in their extended tribe, made by various forms of adaptive reuse in different places in the world, some more secretive or public, permanent or temporary. And, of course, they would have had their own unique collection of, sometimes fanciful, eco-tech vehicles. Imagine a green batmobile... I thought this a good vehicle to introduce kids to environmental issues, green technology, open technology, and post-industrial cultural concepts. Alas, the concept was far too elaborate and science/tech-oriented for him.

Eric Hunting
erich...@gmail.com