A helium full moon to shelter a music and dance festival

EPFL has designed an architectural project intended to welcome the audience and performers at the St Prex Classics festival. The stage and the tiered seating, entirely made of wood, will be covered by a 25-meter helium hemisphere. The potential of this invention, in particular for tourism, extends well beyond this particular event. Ao, the god of clouds of Polynesian mythology, will be playing with light and shade in the sky over Saint-Prex! The name has also been chosen for the architectural project being developed in EPFL's Atelier de la conception de l'espace (ALICE) or "Space Conception Workshop" at the invitation of the St Prex Classics cultural festival. Under the leadership of Dieter Dietz, the director of ALICE, and with the cooperation of several students of this department, the architects Sibylle Kössler and Sara Formery have designed a space for concerts and dance that can be fully disassembled, and has been designed to fit neatly into the Place de l'Horloge facing the clock tower, the entrance to the medieval town of Saint-Prex. "Ao" has been presented to the press last Tuesday, shortly before the opening concert of the 6th series of the St Prex Classics , which lasts until August 28th. "We have created a space that is designed to highlight the medieval town, and which transforms the Grand Rue into a pleasant and animated meeting place, while providing both the performers and the audience at the festival with a comfortable concert venue of high quality" summarizes Dieter Dietz. "We also wanted the project to have a high visibility, without adversely affecting the essence of the old buildings", he adds. A floating dome that protects you from the rain