For an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Dutch architect office Oosterhuis.nl developed a pavilion. This pavilion (see pictures) was designed to react to it's surrounding through the use of sensors which control pneumatic muscles. The muscles become shorter at increased  internal pressure. Those muscles were developed by Festo.

The skin of the pavilion was realized by Buitink Technology. The pavilion gets a large distortion in space as every muscle can be controlled separately. The pavilion's shape changes interactively trough the integration of sensors.

Pneumatic muscles

The Festo's pneumatic muscle is originally developed for the industry but due to it's proper functioning (simply through air pressure) it was very appropriate to adapt it to the building sector. The muscle is composed of woven aramid fibers allowing the muscle to shorten up to a maximum of 25%  with air pressure.This decrease in length is used to tense the structure, as shown in the exhibition's pavilion that is built by Festo itself.

Year of implementation 2003.