Cascoland Journal

Monday 6 March

Want to know what an inflatable bed & breakfast place looks like? For this experience and even be able to sleep in it for one night one has to get in touch with madam Thoko, the owner of Inkosi Ilapha Bed & Breakfast. During the Cascoland presentation from 3 to 12 March Dutch aritst Bert Kramer revealed his most extraordinary inflatable experience to the residents of New Crossroads.

For most people architecture is synonymous with designing houses of stone or wood. They come in different sizes and measurements, different designs and applications, but the basic concept always seems to be the same. What the Dutch interior design architect Bert Kramer is doing however, is far from obvious and sets out to trigger the imagination and the senses of those who are willing to experience it.

In the last few weeks Bert was busy transforming Thoko´s emerging Bed & Breakfast place Inkosi Ilapha (God is here), located on Luthango Crescent 311, New Crossroads, by building temporary inflatable rooms. Bert explains: ´What I did was build a kind of balloon out of pieces of flexible PVC fabric that were sown together here in New Crossroads and placed them inside two rooms of Thoko´s B&B. With a blowing machine (known as a blower), that I placed outside the house, air is blown into this balloon, inflating it, creating a room within a room. The PVC fabric will adjust itself to all the shapes and forms of the room.´

Bert´s idea might not seem very obvious and a bit strange for those who are not familiar with modern ways of looking at architecture. But if you look at the design he has made for his temporary B&B, things become much clearer. He says: ´My work is a lot about experiencing living in a house in a different way. I am looking for solutions to how we use our houses. At this moment we build structures whereby certain rooms take up a lot of space even though we might not use that space so much. I think that we could make much better use of our living spaces inside our houses by looking at it from a more flexible and simple perspective. Also I notice that the inside and the outside of a house are often not in harmony with each other.´

He gives an example of how two neighboring houses could use their available spaces more efficiently by creating a space that both can use. He says: ´As far as I see it people use only a limited amount of time in, let us say, the living room. He or she might sit there a certain number of hours and then spend time in another room. One can see a pattern in that behavior. With that information you could think of a way that one and the same room could be used by two different families.´

Again, the aim in his designs is to work with minimal resources to create a maximum outcome. He says: ´For me noise is garbage. I am trying to get rid of that garbage while creating my inflatable room. What you will hear when you stay in my inflatable room is a soft stream of wind coming from the blower, outsourcing other possible sounds that under normal conditions would be heard. The atmosphere in the inflatable room will be very peaceful. When one is inside, the fabric of the balloon will be all white. Only the most necessary things will be placed inside the room: a bed, a table to sit at, some sheepskins as decoration and a functioning bathtub.´

Most of all Bert´s inflatable room is about experiencing something that triggers the senses. He says: ´The moment the inflatable room is zipped open one feels like entering a warm body. The fabric is moving, it feels like being sucked into something. When one closes the zip the balloon expands again. Through the fabric one can still vaguely see the outlines of the original room.´

Past experiences in the Netherlands with his inflatable room have shown that children and adults get a different feeling inside. Children see it as a play thing. Adults often get much more into a meditative mood. For those who dare to go for something extraordinary they should definitely check out Thoko´s B&B. After the Cascoland´s presentation week Kramer’s inflatable room is still available for guests for some time.

Construction without inflatable

BK-fabrics work in progress, photo by marie-josÈ hamers

BK-fabrics work in progress, photo by marie-josÈ hamers

Madam Thoko in her salon

Inflatable room

Madam Thoko together with the artist