When my friends and family ask “What kind of a class is inflatables? What does that have to do with Entertainment Technology (my major)?“, the first subject I bring up is bouncy houses. Bouncy houses combine the world of inflatable sculpture with physical intractability, enticing active kids and kids-at-heart with their colorful, elastic forms.
For my In the World inflatable, I have selected the largest bouncy house in the world, officially named “The World’s Biggest Bounce House”. The house is an enormous one-of-a-kind structure produced by Big Bounce America, boasting a footprint of over 13,000 square feet. Along with its posse of showrunners, the House moves across the country, setting up in a new location nearly every weekend (although it has somewhat longer residency in Florida and California).
Bouncy houses are perhaps the prototypic complex inflatable structure, but certainly are the chief example of inflatable location-based entertainment. Learning to design environments that are so adaptable, portable, and whimsical is one of the primary reasons why I chose this class, and seeing our course material reflected in the design is very fulfilling. Although massive, the House is still composed of our fundamental 3D forms – cylinders, spheres, prisms, and cones. Vibrant colors even call attention to these fundamental structures, highlighting how the forms are connected.
