Flying Pavilion

Flying Pavilion
Temporary structure for the Turin Design Festival.

With our flying roof concept we wanted to create an attraction point in Piazza Castello (Turin), both in daytime and night time. It will be anchored low to the pavilion structure during the rare Turin windy days, giving fresh shadow to the info point area when the sun is high; or will be free to fly high above the info point in the night time, being a landmark on top of the Turin plaza.

The idea of the flying roof came from the consideration that the balloon technology, being a very practical technology, is now largely used for advertising purpose. This kind of roof is actually a 100% recyclable parachute nylon bag filled with helium, a kind of inert gas. The roof needs to be recharged every two months for the gas will leak at the rate of 1%/week and return to atmosphere, which is the place it comes from.
The shape of this roof, thanks to a light flat aluminum reticular structure, is kept inflexible. It will be anchored with 4 nylon ropes stretching respectively from 4 sliding pipes that can slide freely inside and be fixed with very simple bolt structure on 4 vertical columns equipped respectively with 4 hand cranks. The whole system guarantees the balloon-roof of any vertical and rotational movement in any direction.
The pavilion under the roof will be a simple steel and safe-glass structure open on two sides and on the roof to facilitate natural ventilation.