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We conventionally divide space

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into private and public realms,

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and we know these legal distinctions very well

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because we've become experts

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at protecting our private property and private space.

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But we're less attuned

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to the nuances of the public.

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What translates generic public space into qualitative space?

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I mean, this is something

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that our studio has been working on

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for the past decade.

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And we're doing this through some case studies.

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A large chunk of our work

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has been put into transforming

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this neglected industrial ruin

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into a viable post-industrial space

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that looks forward and backward

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at the same time.

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And another huge chunk of our work

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has gone into making relevant

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a site that's grown out of sync with its time.

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We've been working on democratizing Lincoln Center

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for a public that doesn't usually have $300

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to spend on an opera ticket.

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So we've been eating, drinking,

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thinking, living public space

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for quite a long time.

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And it's taught us really one thing,

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and that is to truly make good public space,

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you have to erase the distinctions

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between architecture, urbanism,

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landscape, media design

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and so on.

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It really goes beyond distinction.

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Now we're moving onto Washington, D.C.

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and we're working on another transformation,

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and that is for the existing Hirshhorn Museum

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that's sited

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on the most revered public space in America,

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the National Mall.

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The Mall is a symbol

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of American democracy.

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And what's fantastic is that this symbol

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is not a thing, it's not an image,

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it's not an artifact,

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actually it's a space,

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and it's kind of just defined by a line of buildings

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on either side.

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It's a space where citizens can voice their discontent

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and show their power.

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It's a place where pivotal moments in American history

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have taken place.

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And they're inscribed in there forever --

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like the march on Washington for jobs and freedom

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and the great speech that Martin Luther King gave there.

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The Vietnam protests, the commemoration of all that died

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in the pandemic of AIDS,

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the march for women's reproductive rights,

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right up until almost the present.

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The Mall is the greatest civic stage

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in this country for dissent.

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And it's synonymous with free speech,

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even if you're not sure what it is that you have to say.

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It may just be a place for civic commiseration.

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There is a huge disconnect, we believe,

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between the communicative and discursive space of the Mall

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and the museums that line it to either side.

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And that is that those museums are usually passive,

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they have passive relationships between the museum

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as the presenter and the audience,

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as the receiver of information.

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And so you can see dinosaurs

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and insects and collections of locomotives

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and all of that,

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but you're really not involved;

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you're being talked to.

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When Richard Koshalek took over as director of the Hirshhorn

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in 2009,

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he was determined to take advantage

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of the fact that this museum was sited

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at the most unique place:

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at the seat of power in the U.S.

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And while art and politics

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are inherently and implicitly together always and all the time,

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there could be some very special relationship

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that could be forged here in its uniqueness.

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The question is, is it possible ultimately

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for art to insert itself

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into the dialogue of national and world affairs?

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And could the museum be an agent of cultural diplomacy?

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There are over 180 embassies in Washington D.C.

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There are over 500 think tanks.

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There should be a way

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of harnessing all of that intellectual and global energy

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into, and somehow through, the museum.

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There should be some kind of brain trust.

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So the Hirshhorn, as we began to think about it,

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and as we evolved the mission,

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with Richard and his team --

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it's really his life blood.

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But beyond exhibiting contemporary art,

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the Hirshhorn will become a public forum,

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a place of discourse

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for issues around arts,

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culture, politics and policy.

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It would have the global reach of the World Economic Forum.

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It would have the interdisciplinarity of the TED Conference.

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It would have the informality of the town square.

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And for this new initiative,

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the Hirshhorn would have to expand

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or appropriate a site

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for a contemporary, deployable structure.

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This is it. This is the Hirshhorn --

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so a 230-foot-diameter concrete doughnut

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designed in the early '70s

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by Gordon Bunshaft.

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It's hulking, it's silent,

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it's cloistered, it's arrogant,

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it's a design challenge.

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Architects love to hate it.

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One redeeming feature

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is it's lifted up off the ground

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and it's got this void,

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and it's got an empty core

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kind of in the spirit and that facade

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very much corporate and federal style.

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And around that space,

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the ring is actually galleries.

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Very, very difficult to mount shows in there.

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When the Hirshhorn opened,

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Ada Louise Huxstable, the New York Times critic,

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had some choice words:

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"Neo-penitentiary modern."

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"A maimed monument and a maimed Mall

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for a maimed collection."

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Almost four decades later,

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how will this building expand

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for a new progressive program?

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Where would it go?

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It can't go in the Mall.

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There is no space there.

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It can't go in the courtyard.

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It's already taken up by landscape and by sculptures.

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Well there's always the hole.

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But how could it take the space of that hole

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and not be buried in it invisibly?

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How could it become iconic?

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And what language would it take?

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The Hirshhorn sits among the Mall's momumental institutions.

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Most are neoclassical, heavy and opaque,

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made of stone or concrete.

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And the question is,

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if one inhabits that space,

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what is the material of the Mall?

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It has to be different from the buildings there.

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It has to be something entirely different.

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It has to be air.

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In our imagination, it has to be light.

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It has to be ephemeral. It has to be formless.

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And it has to be free.

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(Video)

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So this is the big idea.

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It's a giant airbag.

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The expansion takes the shape of its container

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and it oozes out wherever it can --

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the top and sides.

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But more poetically,

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we like to think of the structure

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as inhaling the democratic air of the Mall,

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bringing it into itself.

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The before and the after.

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It was dubbed "the bubble" by the press.

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That was the lounge.

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It's basically one big volume of air

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that just oozes out in every direction.

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The membrane is translucent.

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It's made of silcon-coated glass fiber.

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And it's inflated twice a year for one month at a time.

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This is the view from the inside.

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So you might have been wondering

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how in the world

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did we get this approved by the federal government.

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It had to be approved by actually two agencies.

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And one is there to preserve

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the dignity and sanctity of the Mall.

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I blush whenever I show this.

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It is yours to interpret.

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But one thing I can say

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is that it's a combination

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of iconoclasm

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and adoration.

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There was also some creative interpretation involved.

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The Congressional Buildings Act of 1910

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limits the height of buildings in D.C.

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to 130 feet,

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except for spires, towers, domes and minarettes.

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This pretty much exempts monuments of the church and state.

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And the bubble is 153 ft.

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That's the Pantheon next to it.

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It's about 1.2 million cubic feet of compressed air.

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And so we argued it

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on the merits of being a dome.

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So there it is,

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very stately,

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among all the stately buildings in the Mall.

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And while this Hirshhorn is not landmarked,

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it's very, very historically sensitive.

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And so we couldn't really touch its surfaces.

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We couldn't leave any traces behind.

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So we strained it from the edges,

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and we held it by cables.

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It's a study of some bondage techniques,

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which are actually very, very important

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because it's hit by wind all the time.

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There's one permanent steel ring at the top,

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but it can't be seen from any vantage point on the Mall.

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There are also some restrictions

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about how much it could be lit.

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It glows from within, it's translucent.

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But it can't be more lit than the Capitol

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or some of the monuments.

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So it's down the hierarchy on lighting.

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So it comes to the site twice a year.

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It's taken off the delivery truck.

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It's hoisted.

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And then it's inflated

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with this low-pressure air.

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And then it's restrained with the cables.

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And then it's ballasted with water at the very bottom.

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This is a very strange moment

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where we were asked by the bureaucracy at the Mall

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how much time would it take to install.

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And we said, well the first erection would take one week.

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And they really connected with that idea.

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And then it was really easy all the way through.

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So we didn't really have that many hurdles, I have to say,

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with the government and all the authorities.

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But some of the toughest hurdles

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have been the technical ones.

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This is the warp and weft.

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This is a point cloud.

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There are extreme pressures.

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This is a very, very unusual building

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in that there's no gravity load,

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but there's load in every direction.

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And I'm just going to zip through these slides.

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And this is the space in action.

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So flexible interior for discussions,

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just like this, but in the round --

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luminous and reconfigurable.

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Could be used for anything,

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for performances, films,

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for installations.

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And the very first program

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will be one of cultural dialogue and diplomacy

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organized in partnership

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with the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Form and content are together here.

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The bubble is an anti-monument.

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The ideals of participatory democracy

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are represented through suppleness

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rather than rigidity.

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Art and politics

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occupy an ambiguous site outside the museum walls,

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but inside of the museum's core,

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blending its air

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with the democratic air of the Mall.

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And the bubble will inflate

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hopefully for the first time

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at the end of 2013.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)