Arc Nova is the World's First Inflatable Event Venue

Japanese architect Arata Isozaki and British-Indian sculptor have teamed up to create an inflatable concert hall called "Arc Nova".

Arc Nova will tour the tsunami-ravaged areas of Tohoku, delivering hope and encouragement in the form of music. The mobile venue can hold close to 500 people and takes about 2 hours to inflate. During the construction of the wooden benches inside, volunteers showed up to help gather wood from damaged cedar trees at Zuiganji Temple in Matsushima.

Anish Kapoor, the Telegraph on-site said:

“Ark Nova is the first mobile inflatable concert hall. We felt that the site in Matsushima, amidst the destruction of the tsunami, needed a temporary structure and an inflatable seemed to be appropriate.”

The concert hall was established in collaboration with organizers of the Swiss Lucerne Festival. “The images of March 11, 2011 have left their mark on all of us,” said the organizers. “With the Lucerne Festival Ark Nova Project we hope to give the people who are living with this situation something more than everyday pleasure. Combining different arts and cultures, this project is a fascinating symbiosis of architecture, design, folkloristic and classical music as well as music education.”