JOHN HILMES / PNEUMATIC ARCHITECTURE

Osmos

A 24′ hyperboloid pavilion with stitched airbeams, skirt-clipped feet, and a two-piece bouncy floor. Explore the physics model ↗

Isometric line drawing of Osmos, a flared circular pavilion formed by 42 vertical airbeams — 01 / PAVILIONEXTERIOR

Cutaway line drawing removing front airbeams to reveal the pavilion interior — 02 / ENCLOSURECUTAWAY

Detail drawing of seven rounded curved inflatable airbeams and their longitudinal seams — 03 / AIRBEAMSDETAIL

Isometric drawing of the annular bouncy floor with a separate movable center disk — 04 / FLOORBOUNCE

Ground anchor detail showing a two-inch skirt D-ring, large washer, and lag bolt embedded sixteen inches into the playa — 05 / GROUND ANCHORSECTION

Height 24′; clear inner base diameter 24′. Upper 16′ stitched together; lower 8′ flexible, with each foot clipped to a 28′ ground skirt extending 2′ beyond the bounce floor. Provisional ground anchoring: 2″ D-rings at every third airbeam (14 total), held by large washers and lag bolts embedded 16″ into the playa. Click airbeams to toggle carabiners, drag to flex, and rotate the entire view. Move the 8′ disk into the center opening or onto the 8′-wide ring. Six blowers housed within evenly spaced airbeam bases have outward-facing intakes and can be placed 20′ away via straight, perpendicular hoses; an optional fur overlay covers the floor. Waist, crown, floor thickness, and material stiffness are estimates; this visual physics model is not structural analysis.

References: Philippe Glade’s exterior and interior photographs, 2018 · The Windmill Factory / Pixel Vortex credits. Back to the Osmos project ↗

Physics drawings use a local XPBD constraint solver with rotational shape matching and a damped spring floor. Earlier Hairline studies by Lucas Marques are preserved alongside this model (MIT license).