Inverta
A circular axle is able to rotate by the use of 36 universal joints hanging from perspex rods and transmitting their rotary motion onto the next. In between the joints, 36 stainless steel objects are attached that rotate at the same speed as the axle. One of the objects has a slightly thinner body, making room for two integrated timing pulleys and thin cogged belts that connect it with the drive mechanism situated on the upper circular frame. The objects are made from thin sheet material and are carefully balanced by placing several counterweights inside their hollow bodies and by perforating their tails, reducing the amount of material furthest away from the axle. During the entire revolution their centre of gravity perfectly aligns with the position of the axle so that a stable rotation is ensured.

ロナン＆エルワン·ブルレック
РОНАН И ЭРВАН БУРУЛЛЕК
БУРУЛЛЕК БРАТЬЯ
Palanco Double Sided Mirror
A delicate mirror pane hangs suspended from cables and pulleys. Designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, the Palanco is a double-faced mirror which hangs from the ceiling from a clever system of cables, pulley and counterweights enabling easy adjustment of it’s height. The counterweights themselves are a large design feature, available in red, brown or neutral. A fascinating and industrial style design.

Moving footbridge
Paddington, London
Opening in sequence, the bridge’s five beams rise to different angles to create a fan-like effect. The first rises to 70 degrees, while the last lifts high enough to create a clearance space of two and a half metres over the surface of the canal. The weight of the beams – which range from six to seven tons – is balanced by a 40 ton counterweight that keeps the beams steady as they rise and fall.

Counterweight project
Tethered to either end of a single rope that goes over the top of this tall thin building, movement in this vertical house for two depends on using the body mass of one’s roommate as a counter weight to aid ascent or slow descent. When one occupant wishes to go up to the kitchen at the top level, the other must go down to the bathroom at the bottom. Between these two rooms are two private sleep / work rooms on levels two and four, and a common room at level three where the ends of the rope meet. Counterweight Roommate was continuously inhabited for five full days of Scope Basel in 2011 by performance-architecture artists Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley, and acquired in 2015 by New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

The Blur Building (an architecture of atmosphere)
The Blur Building is a media pavilion for Swiss EXPO 2002 at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.From piles in the water, a tensegrity system of rectilinear struts and diagonal rods cantilevers out over the lake. Ramps and walkways weave through the tensegrity system, some of them providing a counterweight for the structure. The form is based on the work of Buckminster Fuller.The pavilion is made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 13,000 fog nozzles creating an artificial cloud that measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 65 feet high. A built-in weather station controls fog output in response to shifting climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed.The public can approach Blur via a ramped bridge. The 400 foot long ramp deposits visitors at the center of the fog mass onto a large open-air platform where movement is unregulated. Visual and acoustical references are erased along the journey toward the fog leaving only an optical “white-out” and the “white-noise” of pulsing water nozzles. Prior to entering the cloud, each visitor responds to a questionnaire/character profile and receives a “braincoat” (smart raincoat). The coat is used as protection from the wet environment and storage of the personality data for communication with the cloud’s computer network. Using tracking and location technologies, each visitor’s position can be identified and their character profiles compared to any other visitor.In the Glass Box, a space surrounded by glass on six sides, visitors experience a “sense of physical suspension only heightened by an occasional opening in the fog.” As visitors pass one another, their coats compare profiles and change color indicating the degree of attraction or repulsion, much like an involuntary blush – red for affinity, green for antipathy. The system allows interaction among 400 visitors at any time.Visitors can climb another level to the Angel Bar at the summit. The final ascent resembles the sensation of flight as one pierces through the cloud layer to the open sky. Here, visitors relax, take in the view, and choose from a large selection of commercial waters, municipal waters from world capitals, and glacial waters. At night, the fog will function as a dynamic and thick video screen.