Tetsuo Kondo Architects created playful installation for the Sunken Garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. In collaboration with Transsolar, they designed a small bank of clouds that are captured in the transparent, two-storey container and could be seen from the outdoor plaza, entrance hall, exhibition galleries and other parts of the museum.  This cloud installation is the second one created by this team – trey previously collaborated to produce an indoor cloud at the Venice Biennale in 2010.

When one climbs the stairs beyond the clouds to reach the top of the cube, the museum, the surrounding buildings, and the sky stretch out above the clouds. The clouds are in constant motion and their edges are both sharp and soft. Color, density and brightness are ever changing, depending on the weather and the time of the day.

In order to keep the clouts at the desired height, the temperature and the humidity inside the container are precisely controlled. The air inside the container forms three distinct strata, one cool and dry, at the bottom, a warm and humid middle stratum, and a hot and dry stratum at the top. The clouds form in the warm, humid layer. The elastic material in the container, at a 6 meter ceiling height, makes the whole structure responsive to wind pressure while the double layers of vinyl sheets divide the strata to ensure the stability of the temperature and humidity inside the container.

The aim was to produce an experiment – a new type of architectural space which would achieve high level of integration in engagement with its environment. The structure is in tune with all the invisible changes in the nature that surrounds it – slightest differences in humidity and temperature and the weather, the time of the day and other aspects which influence each other.