BUBBLE ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
The world of imagination
Bubble Architecture Studio is an experimental studio that explores the combination of architecture and limitless imagination. Paulino Poveda, the founder of this studio, believes that projects should be like a bubble - they should come to fulfil their function and “disappear without leaving a trace.”
For this interview, Paulino Poveda, will talk about this idea, the studio’s works, inspirations and more!
Could you tell us a little bit about Bubble Architecture Studio?
The studio was recently founded by Paulino Poveda a young architect who studied at University of Valladolid (Spain) and took the first year of a master degree in Sustainable Design at KU Leuven University in Gent (Belgium). Currently Paulino is working in Berlin with an important scholarship programme for young architects and students, organized by Fundación Arquia. This foundation gives young architects and students the opportunity to work for one of the most important offices in Europe.
Why is it called Bubble Architecture Studio?
The story of this experimental studio started with the main goal of sharing our most personal works to inspire young students, designers and architects so that they can let their minds fly. After doing a final thesis about Inflatable Architecture and Design, it opened us up to a creativity world with no limits. This totally changed the way to create our designs, trying to explore a universe beyond imagination. That's the origin of our name "Bubble Architecture Studio", an evanescent studio that has no specific space, no exact place and no time restrictions. Like a bubble.
This quote of Francis Bacon inspired us as designers: "World's a bubble, and the life of a man, less than a span." We believe that the aim of architects and designers should be to solve small problems, in order to make people’s lives better. You don't need to make a huge project that lasts forever. Sometimes the best way is to create, as we call it, a "Bubble Project"; a project that appears, transforms the area, makes the users enjoy the space, and as soon as the function it was created for ends, it disappears without leaving a trace.
“Bubble Architecture Studio, an evanescent studio that has no specific space, no exact place and no time restrictions. Like a bubble.”
Where do you find inspiration to create your work?
We strongly believe that inspiration can be found anywhere; in a childhood memory, in a book, on the daily walk home, or even in a dream. Nevertheless, it is very complex to define where exactly inspiration comes from, since the result of any creative process is produced by infinite invisible connections related to past images, tastes, smells or feelings. Basically, it comes from the confluence of each individual's personal experiences.
From our personal point of view, we try to find inspiration in things we have always dreamed about. Who has not dreamed as a child of being able to touch the clouds that we thought were made of cotton? Or dreamed about living temporarily in a place away from the noise of the city and in contact with nature?
With our projects, we try to materialize those dreams, our dreams. Resting inside a bubble surrounded by climbing plants and wild animals; relaxing in a small brick pavilion with the beauty of Venice and its canals in the background; living inside a Leonardo da Vinci painting; or climbing a floating structure over the incredible landscapes of the lakes of Myanmar. Imagination has no limits, so let’s create illusions beyond the barriers of dreams.
Could you tell us about your project, “Dear Dendermonde”?
Dear Dendermonde was a project developed at Campus St.Lucas in Ghent- KU Leuven University - (Belgium). The main objective of the project was to analyze the city of Dendermonde, its history, its culture, its urban fabric and its architecture, and create something that would improve the lives of its inhabitants and lead to a more sustainable future.
This proposal links past, present and future in a way that cannot be separated. Arches, bricks, greenery, ruins, history and people come together creating “Dender Machine”, an urban landscape and architecture system where energy and users join, creating a new way of life.
In 1649, Dendermonde was a smaller city surrounded by fortifications where several bastions appeared to defend its inhabitants. These bastions were a fortified redoubt projecting outward from the main body of the fortress, as a strong point of defence against the enemy troops. The proposal takes them as a part of a big system, turning them into five different machines: Green Machine, Wi-Fi Machine, Piezo Machine, Music Machine and Water Machine. Finally, all types of energy appear in the Kazerne Machine, an Electricity Factory located in an old military building.
This way, Dendermonde becomes a big machine where greenery, wind, sun, music, movement, water, communication and people build a big network that modifies this city into a more sustainable place.
For more details about this project, go to bubblearchitecture.com/tie-streets
The illustrations for this project are a very interesting combination of photo collage and hand drawing. Why did you choose to represent this project like this? What inspired this graphic style? What does the color pink represent in this project?
During the design of this proposal, hand drawings took a big role. The main idea was to generate a small book, a story with a beginning, development and end. The main plot of the story would be developed through characters (in this case machines) and a series of interconnections. All this network of relationships and links were possible thanks to the speed of hand and collage drawings during the creative process. These types of illustrations allow us to make and modify decisions quickly, without affecting the overall design. In a more precise type of design, these dynamic changes would not be possible.
One of the most outstanding concepts in the proposal is the pink bow that runs through the whole story. This colour aims to evoke the materiality of the city's abandoned heritage, built with brick walls and arches. It also creates the idea of a machine network, linking all the elements of the project.
We also use this reddish color as an identity, a symbol. Red is a colour that attracts attention and makes users get closer to the element and interact with it, which is the main objective of our project.
Something we haven’t talked about on Arch-Vizz (yet) is the composition of the overall layout of a page. Your layouts are beautifully composed with various images, texts, diagrams, etc which help explain the main project’s concept. Could you give our readers some advice on how to compose a project’s layout? What are some of the things we should keep in mind?
From the first moment, elegance and simplicity were key words in the general design of our layout. We were looking for clean, well-structured and eye-catching, as well as easy to understand content, and at the moment, it seems to work.
In our opinion, we believe that everything is based on the process “Trial-Error”. Most of the time it is not easy to find the right layout at the beginning. It is important to try different proposals to see which one fits your page better. The best part is that you can keep learning, and change the general design when you think it is necessary. Don’t forget that the creative process has no limits.
Our name “Bubble” is also strongly related to our general layout. In our page you may probably see the following quote:
" There's no angry way to say «Bubbles»"
Have you tried to say this word angrily? We have not found anyone who can say the word without a cheerful tone. This represents the philosophy of our experimental studio, an entertainment space with fun ideas.
What/who has influenced you as a designer?
One of the architects who has most influenced our work is the Spanish architect José Miguel de Prada Poole. We are lucky to talk to him for hours, and listen to his wonderful stories and his projects full of dreams (not always fulfilled).
We learned from him that one should never be afraid of having an utopian idea that does not fit within its context. Letting your imagination run wild is crucial, as sometimes these "crazy" ideas may come true.
“Never be afraid of having an utopian idea that does not fit within its context.”
What advice would you give to young designers?
We are a quite new studio that is discovering new things every day. As a young team, our main advice would be to take each criticism and each opinion into consideration, in order to learn from all the advice and keep growing.
As dreamers, our main objective is to be happy with what we do, down to the last detail, no matter how small it is. We try to follow this quote by A.A. Milne, from his book “Winnie the Poo”:
"Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon"
This means that we should not forget about things that seem insignificant, but make each day a better day. Transform your work in that balloon that makes someone smile for hours.
We believe that it is very important that each person creates their own world of imagination, share it with the other people and make a great and global bubble of wishes, dreams and illusion.
“As dreamers, our main objective is to be happy with what we do, down to the last detail, no matter how small it is. ”
Paulino Poveda, thank you for taking the time to interview with Arch-Vizz and talk about work.
You can find more about Bubble Architecture Studio's work on instagram @archbubble and bubblearchitecture.com.
Interview & Images Courtesy: Paulino Poveda / Bubble Architecture Studio
Interviewer: Stefani Fachini