At The Functionality we've been seeing clouds. It's not that we have our heads in the clouds, but that rather there is a distinct desire in schools, and practices for something ethereal, intangible and volumetric, but almost without substance. We've started to think about practices that have been conscious of volume in terms of density or opacity. In some ways it seems we've jettisoned this trajectory. Finding an early forefather in Wachsmann (whose hangar appears below) and potentially achieving somewhat of a built example in Diller and Scofidio's Blur Building. The British Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 by Heatherwick studio is the most recent foray into cloud seeding. It is furry, diaphanous, volumetric, and creates a qualitative space around it that blurs its edges. Its interior (we've yet to see!) hopefully carries these traits further. 

With recent built examples like Heatherwick Studio's British Pavilion and Ball-Nogues Studio's Series of Catenary Flows (like Unseen Current or Feathered Edge) the technology and ability to build structures that elicit the cloud effect is here, but it leaves us wondering, "So what?"

What's next? What kind of cloud will manifest itself next in architecture? Where is the data cloud? The point cloud? The Stratus or Nimbus cloud? We're intrigued by the cloud and curious to see if it can become something beyond an effect.