Tomas Saraceno

Tomas Saraceno is the world's most active artist and architect working on life in the air.

Saraceno's Museo Aero Solar is a flying museum displaying the art of nylon bags. A similar solar-powered dome is shown in this video:

Saraceno's Air-Port-City project proposes a floating international city in the sky, kept afloat by solar-fueled Aerogel, the lightest material ever created. His idea is to establish a residential urban district for migrants which is itself migratory, constantly crossing and blurring boundaries. Saraceno wrote,

These habitations would move like clouds, eliminating geographical and political boundaries, generating human and political communities in continuous transformation and re-definition. These airport-cities would be freely constituted in compliance with international laws, challenging the political, social, cultural and military restrictions presently in effect around the world.

Saraceno has been working consistently for many years to realize these dreams. He has designed buildings for airborne habitation, investigated human flight through solar energy and flying gardens, and many visualizations of what life would be like under these airborne conditions.

In conversation with me, Saraceno spoke about the need for "bicycle paths" of the sky. Air traffic lanes are currently dominated by the needs of commercial heavier-than-air aircraft. Solar powered balloonists and other passive flight vehicles play second place to the needs of heavier-than-air aircraft. Saraceno was pleased that this blog began, and plans to support it and contribute in future.

Here is an amateur video of his biosphere:

Some of my summary above based on this report at WorldChanging:
Review of Saraceno Air-Port-City at WorldChanging.com


More links:

• ArtFacts.net profile
  
• Google images
  
• Kopenhagen.dk interview
  
• Barbican Curve photo
  
• People "flying" in a Saraceno installation
• Liverpool Biennial photos
• ArtNet online gallery