Soft Dome is an outdoor installation made for the 2013 Songzhuang Art Festival. We hope to provide an temporary public space for the urban space. It should be lightweight, portable, and quickly assembled. 

 

The plane of the Soft Dome is composed of a series of triangular units. There are three prototypes of unit - supporting, linking and tensioning. Supporting units provide vertical support for the installation. Linking units are responsible for the integration. Tensioning units fix the installation to the ground. As a result, Soft Dome is a kind of tensile dome structure, and all forces are transmitted to the ground through the connection between the units.

 

The dome is made by 10mm diameter GRC, fiber-glass reinforced plastic, tubes as bones and the pre-cut tarpaulin as skin, which forms a light and thin structure providing envelope. Elastic bones and tarpaulin skin are all soft materials, which form a soft building. It is different from traditional hard buildings and has a friendly relationship with people.

 

The GRC tube bones can be disassembled and folded, which are similar to the frame of folding umbrella and folding fan. It can be carried and installed anywhere. It makes it possible for the Soft Dome to become a kind of portable prefabricated building.