DESIGN PAVILION presents PRATT INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

PRATT’s Pop Up/Drop Off is an inflatable structure developed by a team of Pratt undergraduate architecture students of the Advanced Design Studio, Fall 2021. A collaboration between Pratt’s d.r.a. Lab – Center for Design Research in Architecture and Pneuhaus.

The project investigates design activism around plastic waste in New York, using lightweight, inflatable, repurposed materials.

The colorful recycled patchwork inlay draws awareness to how much plastic film we use in our daily lives. The structure stands as a physical visualization of plastic film waste-related environmental issues, such as plastic bag recycling. It serves as an easily deployable inflatable drop-off location for plastic film recycling. The Pop-Up’s double saddle shape – created by a flat pattern consisting of rotated concentric squares that form tapering tubes – serves a dual function: the concave spaces act as collection areas, while the convex spaces form the roof of the tent.

This project not only collects plastic to be recycled, but also encourages community members to participate in plastic film recycling and seek out permanent drop-offs at local stores for future recycling. Drop-offs are the only way plastic film can be recycled in New York State!

Pop Up/Drop Off can be replicated and installed within any neighborhood to promote better recycling habits.

Designed by Pratt Institutes undergraduate architecture students

– Hannah Bacsoka
– Defne Çeltikçi
– Ileana Hernandex
– Meera Ilahi

Led by
– Duks Koschitz, Professor, Undergraduate Architecture, Pratt Institute
– Robert Lee Brackett III, Adjunct Associate Professor, Undergraduate Architecture, Pratt Institute

Fabricated and Sponsored by
Pneuhaus, an art and design studio that specializes in exuberant transformations of public space. Their immersive sculptures and environments are inspired by physics, biology, and craft, and incorporate the lessons of nature in both form and function.

Sponsored by – Pratt: Office of the Provost, Dean’s Office, Undergraduate Architecture, and Academic Senate – LexArtSci – Lexington Art & Science – Miscellaneous Projects, LLC