December 2018
New York, USA
University of Waterloo
School of Architecture
Studio Project
Directed by Philip Beesley
In collaboration with Brandom Lim
Henri Lefevbre posited a theory of socially constructed space and the right to the city—where hegemony is countered by a citizen’s direct transformation of public space—an idea best summarized by David Harvey as the “right to change ourselves by changing the city”. In this spirit, Pneu-Ground provides a configurable system for the informal occupation, intervention or subversion of the urban realm.
Pneu-Ground consists of two layers of perpendicularly offset quadrilateral lattices, configurable harmoniously with a system of actuating inflatable structures housed within it, controlling its expansion, contraction and curvature. Lightweight and modular, Pneu-Ground is rapidly attached to an existing urban fabric. In itself the scaffolding behaves as a textile, easily suspended from buildings and bridges into layers of structural surface.