Art Basel Miami Beach ‘Exhale’ Pavilion

Project: Exhale Pavilion
Designer: Phu Hoang Office and Rachely Rotem Studio
Location: Miami Beach, FL
Image Credits: Robin Hill
Website: www.phuhoang.com and rachelyrotem.com
Art Base Miami Beach's outdoor "Exhale" Pavilion is officially up and it is already lighting up the oceanfront, pavilion is work of  Phu Hoang Office and Rachely Rotem Studio. For more images and the official press release continue after the jump.

(New York, NY – November 2010) Wind is inherently without form. The Exhale pavilion harnesses this essential formlessness to create a dynamic interactive environment for public art. The winning competition entry for the Art Basel Miami Beach and Creative Time Oceanfront project by Phu Hoang Office and Rachely Rotem Studio will create a public art venue for the annual Art Basel Miami Beach contemporary art fair. The evening programs will include video and performance artists as well as D.J. dance programs. The twenty-five thousand square foot beach site in Miami Beach will be temporarily transformed by seven miles of hanging ropes swaying in the wind. The form of the pavilion literally shifts with the weather, producing an open, flexible and dynamic environment. The Exhale pavilion eschews static divisions of space, instead promoting constant activity in informal public spaces that change their use and interactivity as the evening winds change.

The Exhale pavilion uses two types of rope to create diverse interactive environments. Some ropes are reflective while others are phosphorescent; together they produce a canopy that shimmers and glows in the night. An interactive installation of “floating ropes” is activated by a wind-speed sensor. When the wind reaches a particular speed, it will momentarily activate all of the adjacent ultraviolet lights, “charging” a field of glowing phosphorescent rope. Other, smaller wind speed sensors mounted at human height respond directly to users’ behavior. When someone blows on a sensor, it momentarily “charges” the nearby glowing ropes. Additionally, a hammock clearing provides a space for the public to lounge and swing beneath the swaying rope canopy. Both the floating ropes installation and hammock give form to the site’s wind effects while creating new forms of public interaction with the environment.