trio of inflated pavilions create rural café, cinema, and library amid rice fields in china

designed by increments studio and practice on earth

Down in the Clouds is a trio of curious pavilions planting white, bulbous forms amid the rice paddies of Xiangshan. The structures, appearing to almost balloon out from their aluminum frames, are conceived by Increments Studio and Practice on Earth as part of a growing response to the steady erosion of rural life across China as younger generations continue to migrate to cities in China.

This intervention — somewhere between land art and agricultural revitalization — explores how design might support agrotourism and aid economic diversification With its café, reading room, and film room, it creates a multilayered cluster of civic spaces for gathering and exchange for local communities and tourists.

all images by Wang Yun

down in the clouds aids agricultural revitalization in china

Down in the Clouds draws from the surreal world of Hans Hemmert’s inflatable art. From afar, the white forms appear to float in the greenery, their oversized translucent domes softening the industrial container structures that support them. This playful dissonance — a push and pull between lightness and weight — becomes central to the experience that invites a new perspective to engage with the natural landscape. Though compact, each pavilion functions as an anchor in its own way, sparking a sense of novelty.

The café cantilevers a ballooning structure from an aluminum tower, at the top of which is a viewing point. The reading room is a contemplative refuge tucked amid seven spheres that are inflated between an aluminum frame. It offers indoor, outdoor, and semi-enclosed spaces to sit and grab a book with idyllic views. Meanwhile, the film room becomes an unlikely cinema in the fields that casts stories out over the land. It is shaped as a playful encounter, shaped from an industrial container tilted off the ground and rested atop a soft balloon-like form. Entirely enclosed with wooden internal surfaces and with the upper edge wrapped in glazing, it features integrated seating and a cinema screen.