The students of the Lund Technical College of Sweden were given the challenge to design and create a geometrical installation to inhabit an empty space.  Robert Janson, and his fellow classmates, chose to use plastic carrier bags to create their delicate structure.  The final design was simple and delicate, as the bags explode into the space and dance against the light.  They approached architecture not to create space, but to inhabit space.

SCHOOL: Lund Technical University
PROFESSORS: Theodore Sarantoglou Lalis, Dora Sweijd
and David Erkan
STUDENTS: Emilia Thurin Melin, Karin Backlund, Kim Öhrström, Alexander Carlén, , Emanuel Kjellberg, , Johan Svartnäs, Petter Nilsson, Robert Janson
COURSE: Workshop
YEAR: 2011

 

 

The students began by selecting their component (bags) and a colour scheme, which would comprise of colourful lighting.

They then experimented with the bags to see how they could keep them inflated and intact. According to student Robert Janson, up until the day before the assignment was due, the students were not sure they could solve this dilemma. They tried ironing the bags to create an airtight seal, but they were deflating due to micro-perforation.

The next morning, they discovered the freezer bags would hold air when simply folded and taped on the ends. ‘The easiest and quickest way was also the best,’ Janson says. ‘Then we started to mass-produce inflated bags.’

The installation was built from bottom-to-top. It was created in an abandoned room with no natural light, located in an student centre in Lund. To add to a mysterious sense of atmosphere, they played mystic sounds in the background.

‘The funny thing is that we could gladly continue to build it in so many different ways,’ Janson says. ‘We also had the idea of it engulfing the whole room – the strange flower-shaped creature invaded the sterile and abandoned room, creating an interesting contrast.’

Text via Frame Mag and Images via Robert Janson