air:bnb (Air Build & Beyond) is an interactive, shape-shifting pneumatic pavilion designed as a dynamic architectural shelter. Its 4 m-diameter cylindrical form is defined by a 150 mm thick inflated skin, stabilized by compression caps that also serve as interactive nodes. These nodes allow users to insert modular poles, floorboards, and other attachments, enabling them to actively reshape and repurpose the structure.
Left alone, the inflated skin wants to be a cylinder. Everything interesting happens when that default is resisted — a tensile line pulled from one node to another, a pole braced across the section, a floorboard clipped in to make a level surface where there wasn’t one. The pavilion is less a fixed object than a kit whose final shape belongs to whoever is using it.
- KangarooPhysics-based form finding
- GrasshopperParametric skin and node layout
- RhinocerosDetailing and documentation
- Type
- Group project
- Team
- Hrithik Shetty, Bo Schneider
- Collaboration
- TH OWL, Detmold
- Location
- Detmold, Germany
- Course
- TH OWL — MID Computational Design
The kit of parts
Node. A female connector with a 100 mm central hole and a 150 mm curved-edge mouth, allowing easy insertion, secure grip and flexible adjustment of every other component.
Modular pole. An open-grid pole that accepts individual board placement and supports tensile attachments, letting users transform the interior freely.
Floor board. Male connectors on both ends fit firmly into the nodes, so interior levels can be added and rearranged without tools.
Extension strip. A flexible link that joins multiple air:bnb units by locking into their nodes — enabling modular expansion and external attachments.
Dimensions
- 4 m diameter
- 10 m length
- 150 mm inflated skin
- 150 mm node mouth
- 100 mm central hole
