DAEDALUM

The Daedalum maze is the latest piece of inflatable architecture designed by Alan Parkinson, founder of Architects of Air, installed at the Royal Albert Dock, in London, from 21 to 23 June as part of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival.

Daedalum’s core element is a maze of 19 egg-shaped domes. The arrangement of the translucent elements that are the dome tops and pods is designed to produce vistas and hues of great variety. The spatial conception creates mysterious sight-lines and allows colour to be altered from event to event. This flexibility over the colour experience makes Daedalum the most painterly of the luminaria in terms of artistic control.

Exploring the labyrinth, the visitors can also discover 2 major new elements, designed by Alan Parkinson’s son Meko. The Tree is an adventurous assembly of intersecting volumes rising above the visitor’s head creating many intriguing viewpoints. The Main Dome features an innovative indirect illumination designed to vary the colour inside according to the sun’s direction. The 600 piece pattern of the Main Dome ceiling was loosely inspired by Rome’s Pantheon with its radiant oculus mimicking the sun and the Gustave Doré drawing of angels circling heavenward in Dante’s paradise.

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