This movie by photographer Cristobal Palma shows the Pabellon Ultraligero Centrifugo project installed by Spanish studio Clavel Arquitectos in a Shenzhen public square for the Shenzhen & Hong Kong biennale of urbanism/architecture 2011. Children playing on roundabouts generate electrical power for three spinning parasols, lifting the circular canopies of lightweight waterproof fabric by centrifugal force and illuminating their gold undersides.

“In a world where we charge our mobile phones wirelessly and we send information through the air, why should we not dream about a not-so-far future in which our buildings are sustained by other forces, leaving gravity in second place?” asks Manuel Clavel. “Thanks to the rotation, gravity apparently disappears and only aerodynamic forces shape the fabric.”

Movie directed and filmed by Cristobal Palma
Edited by Gonzalo Aburto

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