Cloud Pergola: The Architecture of Hospitality

BACKGROUND: ‘Cloud Pergola’ was a site-specific installation of a 3D-printed cloud structure at the Croatian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Bruno Juričić. Inspired by cloud formations and weather events, ‘Cloud Pergola’ plays with the visitor’s perception. Movement through the structure generates dynamic interferences in its deep fabric, drifts and ruptures in visibility. CONTRIBUTION: Andrasek’s ‘mathematised cloud’ was designed with an algorithm for multi-agent systems (MAS), whereby agents can be understood as active discrete elements whose behaviour is determined by a collection of rules. When agents act collectively in large populations, they produce complex behaviours and emergent effects. This project is of a lineage of research projects focusing on high resolution structures designed with algorithms and built by robots. It belongs to a family of structures that are information packed, unprecedentedly intricate, lightweight yet strong and resilient. It demonstrates Andrasek’s contribution to research at the nexus of design, computer science and exponential technologies, bringing AI and robotics to the forefront of architectural design and construction. SIGNIFICANCE: Cloud Pergola is said to be one of the world's largest and most complex 3D-fabricated structures. The curator stated that it was envisioned as a paradigm for what architecture should stand for in the 21st century. It received extensive international reviews. The Venice Architecture Biennale - arguably the most important gathering of the built environment - attracted more than 220,000 global visitors during its six-month duration. In March 2019, a video installation of the project was shown at the Performative Computation exhibition in Los Angeles, and the structure was exhibited at the Zagreb City Museum for the Festival of Lights. In 2019, the project was published in the book ‘Experimental Architecture’ (Rachel Armstrong, Routledge) in a chapter authored by Andrasek.