The Decorators create Portal Tables furniture to bring humans and bacteria together

Design collective The Decorators has created three pieces of inflatable furniture that encourage humans and bacteria to intermingle through the process of food fermentation.

The three design sculptures include a 12-person table for making kimchi, a small table for producing labneh cheese and a sofa that can be used for proving the dough for bread.

The objects encourage humans and bacteria to mix

Designers Xavier Llarch Font and Mariana Pestana of The Decorators wanted to highlight the positive role that bacterial microbes can play in human life.

The project builds on the understanding that microbes, such as those cultivated in food fermentation, can improve human digestion. They are also believed to produce feelings of joy through the release of hormones like dopamine and serotonin.

Cheese-Board is used for making and drying labneh

At a time when Covid-19 has increased public fear of both bacteria and human interaction, Llarch Font and Pestana hoped to use bacteria as a way of forging rather than alienating communities.

"We've been made more aware of how non-human agents such as virus bacteria and microbes impact our lives," said Llarch Font.

"This has dramatically changed the way we interact with each other and our very notion of community."

Kimchi-Pool allows up to 12 people to communally make kimchee

The first piece of inflatable furniture is Kimchi-Pool, a large basin-style table with irregularly-shaped seats around the outside.

A group of up to 12 people can sit or kneel at the table to collectively make kimchee, a Korean food created from seasoned and fermented cabbage and radish napa.

Sofa-Bread provides space for bread makers to lounge while dough is proving

Cheese-Board provides a surface and drying rack for making labneh, a soft cheese that is traditionally made in Lebanon.

Sofa-Bread is a tiered seat that invites bread makers to lounge while they wait for their bread dough to prove – the process where yeast ferments the dough – before baking.

"We were interested in this idea of domesticity, how these objects become like kitchen utensils," said Llarch Font.

A performance by artist Laura Wilson was staged on Sofa-Bread

The Decorators produced the designs through a fellowship with the Stanley Picker Gallery at Kingston University in southwest London.

The project began in 2018 but naturally took on a new dimension in light of the pandemic – a time when antibacterial hand washes became part of everyday culture, but people also starting experimenting with recipes for making fermented foods at home.

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"A lot of what we do is about testing public space"– Suzanne O'Connell of The Decorators

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The designers hoped to create a reminder that these foods were not always just hobbies to share on social media, but staple foods created through common domestic rituals.

Llarch Font points to the communal kimchee-making that still takes place today, while Pestana recalls how her grandmother would put bread dough above the fireplace.

"It was something that you lived with," she said.

The designs were exhibited at Stanley Picker Gallery. Photo is by Ellie Laycock

All three inflatables have been brought to life through performances.

The kimchee table was used by the Kimjang Project, a spinoff of the Kingston Korea Festival, while the bread sofa was brought to life in a performance by artist Laura Wilson.

The Decorators produced a film to accompany the designs

The Decorators have also produced a film that explains the background behind the project, which was exhibited alongside the designs in an exhibition at Stanley Picker Gallery.

Portal Tables was on show at the Stanley Picker Gallery from 18 November 2021 to 5 February 2022. SeeDezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Photography is by Sergio Márquez/The Decorators, unless otherwise indicated.

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SOM's inflatable habitats could allow people to "thrive over the long term" on the Moon

Architecture studio SOM and the European Space Agency have created more visuals for Moon Village, a concept for a settlement on the moon made up of inflatable modules.

SOM presented a detailed scale model of Moon Village, which it first announced in 2019, as part of its exhibition Life Beyond Earth at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.

The proposal is for a collection of individual four-level units located in the moon's south polar region that would provide hubs for scientific research.

The units are designed to be inflatable

SOM said that Moon Village could grow over time, evolving from a settlement for research into thriving communities offering wider opportunities such as tourism.

"For SOM, designing a Moon Village meant creating an environment in which humans will be able to thrive over the long term," senior designer Daniel Inocente told Dezeen.

"This is human-centric design."

Life Beyond Earth is on show at the Venice Architecture Biennale

The modules are designed to be inflatable so that they could be compressed and transported to the moon by rocket, where they would be expanded to full size.

Each of the units would be built around a hybrid structural design that would include a rigid titanium alloy perimeter frame and a soft structural shell.

A scale model and site plan are included in the installation

This shell would feature a layer to protect from micrometeorites and a layer made of open-foam polyurethane and double-aluminised Mylar for insulation.

"Unlike other inflatable designs, which place structural mechanical systems at their centre, this solution creates an open interior that allows for optimised environmental conditions, air distribution and recycling, as well as visibility, efficiency and mobility," said SOM associate director Georgi Petrov.

The units would have four levels

The habitats would be located in the south polar region because it gets a lot of daylight throughout the lunar year, which would allow the units to harness sunlight for energy.

"Its location was also chosen in part to enable access to undisturbed material from the early history of the Solar System," SOM design partner Colin Koop told Dezeen.

"Material that will help scientists better understand the formation of our world."

Life Beyond Earth includes a scale model for an individual inflatable unit, as well as a site model showing a collection of units that would make up the village.

The installation addresses the biennale's theme for this year that looks towards the future and asks, "How will we live together?"

An interior view of an inflatable unit

The project was informed by European Space Agency director-general Jan Wörner's concept of a Moon Village, an international community he defines as one whose members could live and work alongside each other in space.

As a lunar settlement, Moon Village is intended to encourage collaboration between countries and communities rather than competition.

The modules are intended initially for scientific research

Koop explained that while there is no definitive timeline for the project, it is designed to be realised with existing technologies and those emerging in the near future.

"Just as innovation from the mid-century space race brought us beneficial technology that we otherwise would not have, the Moon Village will enable the research and innovation that will help solve pressing problems here on Earth."

As well as providing a liveable habitat in space, Koop suggested that the project would offer insight into how we might build more adaptable settlements on Earth in the future.

"Designing a self-sustaining settlement on the moon in such a hostile environment will teach us invaluable lessons about sustainable and resilient design," said Koop.

"It will help us prepare for a changing climate and pioneer new methods of building for a variety of environments."

A community of units forming a lunar village

SOM, or Skidmore, Owings & Merill, is a global architecture, engineering and urban planning firm headquartered in Chicago and founded in 1963.

Formed in 1975, The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to space exploration.

Other recent designs for the moon include a similarly expandable and self-sustainable lunar habitat by a startup called Instarz and a human lander designed by Elon Musk for a 2024 mission scheduled to carry the first woman to the moon.

All the images are courtesy of SOM.

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