Design farm Bittertang envisioned strangers lounging and mingling within Burble Bup’s earthen walls, laying down and feeling comfortable underneath constantly shifting colored light. Burble Bup is a secret hideout that lures people into its soft and magical interior through the use of a colorfully inflatable roof. Here they are enticed to stay, mingling among new friends and upon plush soil tubes. The pavilion isn’t a space of circulation but of rest and social interaction.

Unlike most pavilions, soil berms produce a private interior with whorls of smaller spaces knotted around its periphery. These soil mounds, constructed of soil and bark-filled fabric tubes provide sitting and climbing surfaces. The exterior gradually mounds up in a series of grassy benches rising to form a visual and acoustical boundary for the pavilion’s interior where public performances as well as private small talk can be enjoyed.

Erected in the courtyard of Liggett Hall during Governors Island’s summer festivities, Burble Bup is a pavilion of two parts. The first part, a dome, is made from individual custom-designed components (Bups) with a unique morphology that allows them to be connected together in a variety of ways. Their articulated, bloated and textured limbs provide a sticky connection to join neighboring Bups. The other portion of the pavilion is a landscape zone that gently rises to provide privacy and structural support for the dome.

Burble Bup is sustainable in many ways: some materials are to be recycled; others will be reused. Bittertang anticipates that the non-toxic inflatables will be reused as floating toys at various NYC pools after the summer season ends. The fabric used for the soil tubes will be composted. The Pampas Grass and soil filling the tubes will be distributed to other landscape projects on the island. All of the materials were chosen for their ability to enhance our surroundings after their deployment in the pavilion.