Photography by Ryan Jenq
“Looking forward, we may launch into the sky. Able to float with the clouds, Sky Villages can be broken down, reassembled, and upgraded as communities evolve. Untethered and adrift, we could once again journey with the climate and leave the earth open, pristine, and uncluttered with humanity.”
Sky Villages is an interactive installation by James Paulius at SPARK Brooklyn Children's Museum that invites children to build clusters of airborne villages on the wall. The villages are made of tessellating units that interlock in countless ways to create various structures. By engaging the child’s imagination, this installation reinforces the application of creativity, problem solving, and three-dimensional thinking.
As Earth’s population increases, we may look to the atmosphere for inhabitable space. Sky Villages presents the possibility to dwell in the sky in modular architecture that can be added or removed as populations increase or decrease. Dwelling units are prefabricated with the intent of reuse rather than discardment. When a unit no longer fits the particular needs of its location, it can be moved elsewhere for a new family to reside in. Constantly evolving, these structures accommodate the ever-changing tendencies of humanity and nature.
The toy blocks in this installation are fabricated from Douglas-fir wood reclaimed from water towers in Manhattan, NY.
James Paulius is a Brooklyn-based designer born and raised in Chicago. James has an interest in designing products that integrate people with their environment to promote creativity, curiosity and joy. His belief that our ability to influence society and culture through the conscious creation of our environment inspires him to design artifacts that are sensitive towards the effects they have on humans.
