PALMA, an architecture studio based in Mexico City and Sayulita, was founded by Ilse Cárdenas, Regina De Hoyos, Diego Escamilla, and Juan Luis Rivera. Working with a design process that is open to experimentation and exploration, the studio not only works on architectural projects but dwells in the sphere of art and space installations.
With the loose nature of the construction and the lightweight of paper as a material, airflow constantly modifies the shape of the installation as well as the space within it
Last November, PALMA build a temporary space installation inside a factory and office complex in Mexico City. The installation, titled “vacío”, which means “empty” in Spanish, designed to modify the limits and experience of the space where the piece is placed, lets nature forces, like airflow, keep shaping its form endlessly.
The lightness of ‘vacío’ allows the airflow to constantly modify the defined geometry of the prism. Inside, space mutates and interacts with the visitor, almost forcing them to move around as the hanging paper sheets breathe, explains the design team.
Constructed with more than 1,200 recycled sheets of paper that were first collected from various architecture firm offices and then dyed blue, erasing or covering the previously existing drawing or text, unifying each paper as equal, collateral part of the temporary installation.
After dying, the papers were used to build four massive, floating curtains that when hung up to form a space between them, creating a space within a space. Because of the loose nature of the construction and the lightweight of paper as a material, airflow was constantly modifying the shape of the installation as well as the space within it.
Watch the video below of the beautiful installation, how it shapes the space and moves within it, and how it interacts with people inside it.