6m Floating Columns, an installation by MAIO Architects, was showcased at the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015.

From the architects:

“Floating is a spatial activator for public discussion. It is a manifesto installation that aims to provide a response to the question of the state of the art of architecture by means of its very design: it is siteless, systemic, unfinished, ready-made. Floating takes the commons as a starting point. It amplifies other architectures, provokes things into happening, and allows critical dialogues about the current state of the field to open up. As architecture’s outlines have become dimmer, the quest for a characterization of a state of the art leads us to the conclusion that architecture is made of infinite and ever-changing attitudes materializing in different forms.

Floating is a ready-made architecture that can be continuously reconfigured. Each Floating unit is an inflatable structure, forming part of a wider system that allows to shape different spaces as required. Thanks to its lightness, each unit can be easily moved depending on the site and audience. The structure is in a permanently unfinished state. It can be moved around a building, showing up in different places and with different configurations. Architecture is not about what it is, it is about what it can be.”