The Bubble

Did you hear about the Hirschhorn Bubble (more officially, the Bloomberg Balloon) that wants to go up at the Hirschhorn museum?  It's a controversial design by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (architects of The Highline) that is essentially an inflatable membrane that covers the inner courtyard of the Hirschhorn's modern building.  My understanding is that it won't be used as an exhibition space, but it will be used towards art education (e.g., lectures), the core mission of the Smithsonian Institution.  They've run into funding issues so it's hard to say whether the Bubble will actually happen or not.  I'm rooting for it though.  I think anything that adds visual interest to the Mall should be welcome.  Embraced, really.  This temporary structure that they will put up and take down, depending on the time of year, is not quite architecture.  It's really more of a blurring of art and architecture, similar to Doug Aitken: Song 1 which used the architecture of the Hirschhorn building to display and present images.

By the way, have you seen the Kennedy Center at night lately?  Its Nordic Cool exhibition includes a light display projected onto the building itself to look like the Aurora Borealis.  We've been admiring it whenever we see it while driving around town.  If you get a chance, make a point to check it out before the end of March.