Rachel Dorothy Tanur Memorial Lecture: Pneuhaus “Building with Air”
Harvard GSD - Piper Auditorium, Cambridge, MA
Pneuhaus began by blowing bubbles: a joint thesis project built around a fascination with inflatables and what could be made of them at a craft level. This talk traces how that early curiosity grew into a full-fledged art, design, and fabrication studio. Working hands-on with materials and techniques eventually shaped an unusual business model, closer to a traveling circus than a design studio, where work packs down small, travels light, and can go up almost anywhere in the world. August Lehrecke, Pneuhaus co-founder, will cover how making and installing their work built the studio Pneuhaus runs today, and how commissioned projects sharpen the skills and tools they carry back into the creative practice. Underneath it all is a fascination with how much a shift in air pressure can change: soft turns rigid, a surface lets light through or blocks it out, or a structure deforms underfoot. Lehrecke will discuss various studio projects and the areas the studio is currently exploring.