The Dangerous Adventure of Designing Bubbles

Bubbles are concretisations of temporary spaces. On the one hand, the bubble constitutes a structural, inflatable element characterised by a specific, malleable, transparent materiality; on the other hand, it represents a conceptual spatial device for expressing a specific feature of contemporary anthropological spaces, a place of exposure, in which the boundaries between outside and inside, between soil and sky, seem to disappear. In this essay, I will first reflect on the ephemeralisation of space, focusing on the definition of space as a network. Second, I will elaborate on this theoretical diagnosis by drawing on work by Vilém Flusser, who explicitly proposes the bubble as a space of contemporary living. Third, through discussing specific examples, I will attempt to develop a critique of bubble spaces as a dimension of contemporary design.