Bureau A, a multidisciplinary practice in Switzerland, designed an inflatable black nightclub made up of PVC membrane, which can easily be transported to any location. The studio created this temporary pop-up for the annual party of the Federation of Swiss Architects, known as Bund Schweizer Architekten. 

Called Shelter, the design is based on a research about underground shelters to search for new territories under the skin of the earth, as explored by theorists Beatriz Colomina, Paul Virilio and Gaston Bachelard, mentioned in architects' references. 

The eye-catching inflatable structure is a lightweight and formless pop-up, including a bar and dance floor inside with a dramatic atmosphere. In the interior, the space also consists of inflatable balck furnitures called 'pouffs', seating, tables and DJ booth. 

The Shelter as designed to host the annual summer parties of the Federation of Swiss Architects and it was installed inside Pavillon Sicli, which is a cultural venue in Geneva.

The architects are referencing 3 theorists as giving the shape of underground shelters they explain ''Bachelard woke up the right to the unconscious spatial exploration of the underground through the figure of the cellar. Virilio unveiled the potential of semi-buried architectures in his Bunker Archeology. Colomina brought up to light the hidden architectures and psychotic strategies of the American society during the Second World War in her book Domesticity at War.''

''The underground fascinates and completes the hygienic and panoptical world of the over-ground. For one night, the black hole of a neat and well organized society is revealed as a potential for distortion, a potential of let-go and provoke, with a slight smile, the unsaid and the sweat,'' says Bureau A. 

''The mysterious black vessel lands in the modern space of a highly engendered concrete vault; a great spatial condition to explore the corners of what is hidden,'' the designers added.

Bureau A led by Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide who are aiming to blur the boundaries of research and project making on architectural related subjects, whichever their nature and status. BUREAU A has gained, in a short period of time, a wide recognition through a number of awards and publications. 

The bureau was, amongst other things, awarded with the Swiss Art Awards and first prize for the CEVA Champel public space competition and Ville et Champs competition. 

Its work has been presented at the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel for the exhibition "Orientations: Young Swiss Architects", at Art Basel for "Design at Large" and at the MUDAC in Lausanne. The projects of the bureau have been published in the most important design blogs and a wide number of international paper publications.

All images © Dylan Perrenoud

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