Cloud Mountain: AIA National Conference Stage
The “Cloud-Mountain” stage set for the AIA 2012 National Conference was designed in response to the conference theme of ‘experience’, and a brief to capture the outdoor lifestyle of Brisbane. The profiled cloud-mountain form created a subtle and ambiguous connection to the outdoors, using stage lighting to re-create the colour of the Brisbane sky as it changed throughout the day, from sunrise to sunset.

Using minimal means—a tiny construction budget, and a limited number of donated, borrowed and recyclable materials—the Cloud-Mountain aimed to make a big visual impact. It took on the scale of the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre’s main auditorium to make an important contribution to the image, identity and atmosphere of the 2012 conference. The form and lighting effects of the stage have come to be strongly associated with the event, lending an immediately recognisable image to the conference that hopefully will be remembered beyond the brief two day life-span of the built construction.

Awards:
2013 AIA Queensland Architecture Awards:
Brisbane Regional Commendation – Small Project Architecture

With thanks to:
Furniture Concepts (Stage build)
Corporate Culture and JoinPro (Furniture)
Gibbon Group (Tretford Carpet)
Illuminating Engineering Society (Stage Lighting)
Laminex (MDF)
Ampelite Australia Pty. Ltd. (Fibreglass)
Dulux (Paint)
Fonterra Brands (Australia) Pty. Ltd. (Milk crates)
Cox Rayner Architects (for their support throughout the project)