the deflation of the inflatable villa by luis pons art basel miami beach

the deflation of the inflatable villa by luis pons   art basel miami beachimage © designboom

at art basel in 2005, florida-based architect luis pons presented his visionary ‘fabulous floating inflatable villa’ – a billowing structure seen offshore in miami as commentary on the egoistic ‘mcmansion’ culture of contemporary american society of that time. following seven years of a palpably shifting real estate climate, pons re-introduced the piece as part of miami design district inventory project with  ‘the deflated villa’ during art basel miami beach 2012 in a completely new context – the antithesis of its predecessor. where the ‘inflatable villa’ critiqued the blindness of uninspired grandeur, the latest iteration enters into a continued dialogue of societal behaviour, however, now,  focusing on the vulnerability and fragility of the human spirit in response to the plummeting values of homes –  a bursting of the real estate bubble. what was a once proudly overbearing structure is now replaced with something much more self-effacing, shrunken to reflect the changing  values and attitudes of miamians today.

following seven years of a palpably shifting real estate climate, pons re-introduced the piece in a completely new contextimage © designboom

what was a once proudly overbearing structure is now replaced with something much more self-effacingimage © designboom

where the ‘inflatable villa’ critiqued the blindness of uninspired grandeur, the latest iteration focuses on the vulnerability and fragility of the human spiritimage © designboom

image © designboom

luis pons explains the projectvideo courtesy midtown now

‘the deflated villa’ by night

‘the fabulous inflated villa’, miami 2006

the structure in 2005

sketch of the deflated version