Monsieur Luftarchitektur

Hans-Walter Müller, born in Worms in 1935, is an architect and engineer. Since the late 1960s, he has been developing forms of pneumatic architecture. Müller has designed inflatable volumes for artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Salvador Dalí, and Maurice Béjart, and since 1973 has had his permanent residence in an air structure at an airfield south of Paris. In the inflatable volume, which encloses a large room, he manufactures the panels of the inflatable structures himself. He creates public spaces of all sizes and shapes, which are realized in France and abroad (theaters, exhibitions, events, etc.).

The comprehensive exhibition at the Air Museum is the first major presentation of this exceptional architect in Germany. The countless publications on pneumatic architecture have seemingly simply overlooked him. It is all the more astonishing to see this entire oeuvre in its truest light for the first time.

The architecture of the air is a biological construction. It is a living organism governed by the laws of "GAS AND LIQUIDS." It consists of a fluid, air, enclosed by a skin, and, like any living organism, functions with the help of energy.
The architecture of the air is hydraulic; only the injected air supports the skin. The air columns, tangible but not palpable, have axes that are not perpendicular to the ground but oriented in a variety of directions. They are arranged at right angles to the tangent of the curvature.
The architecture of the air is an architecture of tensions. The air, subjected to a tiny pressure, creates a tension in the skin that makes conventional load-bearing walls superfluous.
The architecture of the air is an autonomous construction, free from gravity and subject to the effect of an ascending sensation. Instead of foundations that reach into the earth, there are anchor points that hold it back.
The architecture of the air depends on geometric and physical calculations that require the simultaneous skills of the engineer and the architect, both of which are united in the art of the designer.

The architecture of the air is multifaceted; it is not limited to the hemisphere. It is capable of large spans and spanning vast spaces. Paradoxically, the larger a structure, the less energy it requires.

Opening: 24.5.2025, 7:30 pm
Lecture: 27.5.2025, 7:30 pm with Hans-Walter Müller