An inside look into the architectural installation in Avery Plaza, with conversations with the faculty and students involved.

It’s hard to miss: the giant gray cloud hovering over Avery Plaza covering the blue sky with its ovular shape. Its metallic silver color makes all the students passing look up and stare, unable to take their eyes away. But where did this installation come from? And what are we, the students on campus, to make of it?

For those unaware, this exhibit can be attributed to the students of GSAPP (Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation), with students from both the Spring and Fall 2024 semesters coming together in architectural seminars to make this project. This large inflatable toros has nets connecting down below to beanbags, with the inflatable extending further into a classroom of Avery Hall and additional nets connecting the project to both Avery and Havemeyer.

In a statement about the Cloud from Rena Okamoto and Conrad Hiller on behalf of the Outside In project, they include that this installation spans 66 feet and utilizes 25 cables. They emphasize the collaborative nature of the project:

“This net makes tangible the impact of individual actions, as each movement subtly affects others and underscores the influence of our environment. The soft, mobile seats are shifted throughout the day by people using the space, creating a visual dialogue of personal expression and adaptation, influenced by the shifting shadows of the surrounding building.” (Okamoto and Hiller) 

I had the privilege of speaking with the faculty and students who had worked on this project, including:

  • Laurie Hawkinson: An architect herself, Hawkinson is the architecture professor who led the seminar for this project during Spring and Fall 2024, alongside Professor Galia Solomonoff (who was unavailable to attend this interview).
  • Tristan Schendel: Tristan is the teaching assistant for the Fall 2024 seminar that created this project, as well as a GSAPP 2021 graduate who has taken this same seminar in 2021.
  • Nikoletta Zakynthinou-Xanthi: Nikoletta is a student at GSAPP who is part of the programming team of the inflatable.
  • Franco Nocioni: Franco is a student at GSAPP who is also part of the programming team of the inflatable.

Could you explain the project and its significance?

  • Nikoletta: “The aim of the installation was to initiate a conversation among people, buildings and the environment, and to showcase how we are all interconnected: people, relationships, air. etc” Nikoletta explained that the net connects to the toros, and the net connects the buildings of Fayerweather and Avery to one another. She added that the community and people should experience this place all together.
  • Prof. Hawkinson: “It was especially poignant right now when the campus is not open to the public. To me personally, it was very important to achieve this as we weren’t able to in the spring.”
  • Franco: “People start considering and changing their view on what architecture is. We are showing them that an inflatable can also be an architectural aspect.” Franco included that the installation helps to start reshaping the dynamic of the university, specifically its social dynamics – he points out how fast news can spread causing people to gather in a place that was relatively empty before.

How was this idea brainstormed and developed? Did it originally start in another direction or was it always planned to have a final product such as this one?

  • Prof. Hawkinson: “We started this program during COVID (2021), when we couldn’t work together. So it started as a seminar in which we could work together. It followed a 2011 art project from Prof.Solomonoff.” After the first year it was super important because it allowed us to work together, designing and building. We thought we could learn something new each time, so we kept challenging our previous ideas and upping the ante. 
  • Tristan: “This seminar follows a series of seminars building upon each previous year, with each year attempting to explore a new layer of architectural possibilities”. Tristan adds that the set up of the creative process was an informal competition format between the architectural students, with the students having proposals of what the inflatable could be and the best ideas being morphed into a single unified idea. 
    • Prof. Hawkinson adds there were many reiterations of this project, as it wasn’t just a one and done situation in designing and creating. 

How was the project created and installed? What challenges arose?

  • Nikoletta: It was super hard to install. The weight and effort of 25-30 people at the same time was needed to try to pull up the installation. On the first day, the fabric was unfolded and while it was inflating, students were in windows attempting to pull up the inflatable. This required a lot of coordination on the students’ part, including shouting across the plaza to communicate with each other. The work on the installation took almost three full days. 
  • Franco: This course in particular takes you from the design process to the final product, so “..you see the implications of every line you draw..” as Franco put it. There are many things that didn’t happen as they were supposed to, so one has to have many options for a situation, something Franco learned through this process. You also learn that the installation can still work even when it doesn’t go completely according to plan, having to realize as designers, one can’t control everything.  Franco admits he was worried the students weren’t going to use the space, but has encountered that now he even has to tell people to clear out for planned events there.

What do you hope the CU community/students get from this project?

  • Nikoletta: “For me, this installation validates the forces that already exist. There is an interconnecting air that blows around”. Nikoletta additionally noticed that after people started coming and having midterms, they got creative: fixing furniture, or deciding to hang their design for midterms on the net of the installation. A group of students were taking their midterms there – Nikoletta asserted that this installation made people feel more human and creative. 
  • Franco: To Franco, talking about this project with your friends is not just talking about the element itself, but also about explaining the change it generates in the environment it is in and how the element reshapes the dynamic of the space. To him, it’s not just about what you see, but also thinking about how the artifact is reshaping the space. 

Obtaining such great insight from the faculty and students involved in this project provides a look into the behind-the-scenes of this project and the intention made behind each choice. This installation is only open till the 30th of October so make sure to go and get a good look of it before it’s gone. To learn more about the design of  “Cloud” and future events held underneath the installation, visit their website!

Those involved in the installation as quoted from Columbia GSAPP’s News Article on the Cloud Pavilion:

Columbia GSAPP Spring ’24 students include: Aashka Ajmera, Harshini Ashok, Zackary Bryson, Carmen Chan, Jinjian Chen, Yuan Chen, Ken Farris, Haoge Gan, Preethi Ganesh, Candelaria Gassiebayle, Aishwarya Garg, Eric Hagerman, Conrad Hiller, Inbal Himelblau-Denman, Janhavi Hinge, Yilin Huang, Kelsey Jackson, Mariam Jacob, Harshvardhan Jhaveri, Jillian Katz, Kelvin Lee, Jason Li, Rilka Li, Xinyi Liu, Noah Miller, Erisa Nakamura, Rena Okamoto, Jared Orellana, Shrey Patel, Han Qin, Ammar Rassai, Yansong Wang, Haoran Wu, Andrea Yang, Dongxiao Yang, Xavier Zhapan-Sullivan, Jianyu Zheng.

Columbia GSAPP Fall ’24 students include: Devyanshi Arya, Karim Baba, Qizhen Chen, Lula Chou, Daniel Hahn, Yun Jeong Han, Martina Hollmann, Laurent-Shixun Huang, Ka Heun Hyun, Teymour Khoury, Adi Klein, Leslie Li, Lucy Li, Lajja Mehta, Franco Nocioni Sr., Matija Pogorilic, Maria Paula Rico, Khushi Saraiya, Anna Schmitz, Longjiu Sun, Matilda Terolli, Nikoletta Zakynthinou Xanthi, Hanyin Zhang, Joe Zhang, Yunhao Zhong.

The project was led by GSAPP faculty Laurie Hawkinson and Galia Solomonoff, along with teaching assistants Tristan Schendel and Syed Haseeb Amjad, and supported by Dean Andrés Jaque. Additional support was provided by Danielle Smoller, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs; Janet Reyes, Senior Associate Dean of Administration and Faculty Affairs; Mariam Jacob, Assistant Director of Academic Affairs; James Nanasca, Director of GSAPP’s Making Studio; Yonah Elorza, Making Studio Assistant Director; the Columbia Facilities and Operations Team, among others at Columbia GSAPP.

Engineering consulting was provided by Hubert Chang, PE, from Silman Structural Solutions. Fabrication was completed by Àrea Cúbica and at the GSAPP Making Studio.

Image via Author