A spherical concert hall inflating hope
On 20 May 2025, Lucerne Festival unveiled the air-inflated concert hall Ark Nova in Lucerne’s Lidoweise Park. The balloon-like, spherical membrane encloses a fully equipped stage and audience seating, complete with lighting and sound systems. Visitors are immersed in an eggplant-purple interior that heightens the senses, amplifying the emotional resonance of live performance through an experiential spatial encounter.
Ark Nova is a mobile architectural structure that first originated in Japan in 2013. Conceived in response to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated Fukushima in 2011, the pavilion embodies a symbolic belief: that culture, art, and music can offer hope during times of rebuilding. It was developed through a collaboration between sculptor Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki, sharing the same formal vocabulary as Kapoor’s 2011 work Leviathan.
Rising 18 meters high with an inflated volume of 9,117 cubic meters, its envelope is fabricated from a 0.6-millimeter polyester fiber membrane coated with PVC. The structure inflates in just 10 minutes using three high-capacity fans, which continuously maintain internal pressure. Without a concrete foundation, the hall is anchored to a steel base plate mounted on layered ground-protection beds of sand, compacted gravel, and matting—an intentional design choice to preserve the park’s grass surface.
The project was initiated by Lucerne Festival’s Executive and Artistic Director Michael Haefliger and concert agent Masahide Kajimoto, who envisioned a space where architecture and art could unite people through music, becoming not just a venue, but a shared sensorial experience fostering cultural solidarity.
Ark Nova was first inflated and operated in Japan’s disaster-stricken Tohoku region in 2013, beginning in Matsushima, followed by Sendai, Fukushima, and Tokyo. Throughout its making and touring process, architects, engineers, artisans, students, planners, local material producers, and clients engaged in a deeply collaborative methodology guided by the principle that “learning happens through making.” The pavilion became a global symbol of renewal, communal healing, and cultural alliance for local residents and tsunami survivors.
Twelve years later, the 2025 New Ark became the first deployment of Ark Nova to be inflated in Europe. Over an 11-day schedule, it hosted musical programs spanning classical and pop, demonstrating cross-genre exchange within its enveloping interior. Carrying forward the same declaration—“Music is hope”—Ark Nova, 12 years after its first creation, reinflated its message in Lucerne, positioned between river and forest, attesting with warmth and quiet conviction to the capacity of art and architecture to embody human resilience in a shared spatial language. Image: courtesy of Lucerne Festival
Project: Ark Nova in Lucerne Festival / Location: Lidowiese, Lucerne, Switzerland / Design and concept: Anish Kapoor + Arata Isozaki / Initiation: Michael Haefliger + Masahide Kajimoto / Use: demountable and relocatable concert hall / Site area: 4,249.22m² / Floor area: 720.22m² / Interior ground area: 680.00m² / Dimensions: approx. 29m(L) x 36m(W) x 18m(H) / Interior height: 17.77m / Structural height: 18.07m / Volume: 9,117m3 / Surface area of the envelope: 2,117m² / Weight: 1,700kg / Maximum seating capacity: 500 people / Structure: main framework_pneumatic membrane structure; foundation: steel base plate with load-distributing ring / Material: roof and envelope_PVC-coated polyester membrane / Design: 2011.6-2013.8 / Inaugural installation: 2013.9 / Lucerne installation: 2025.8 / Photograph: ©Seraina Wirz (courtesy of Lucerne Festival), ©Patrick Hürlimann (courtesy of Lucerne Festival)
