Alcoholic Architecture

Set in a Victorian building in London, Bompas & Parr’s “Alcoholic Architecture” is the world’s first alcoholic weather system for your tongue where meteorology and mixology collide.

Set in a Victorian building that was once the original home and offices of The Trustees of Borough Market, Bompas & Parr’s “Alcoholic Architecture” takes over the basement – itself a former banana store for unripe fruit arriving from the West Indies – and will source many ingredients for its drinks list from Borough Market itself.

The installation explodes drinks to the scale of architecture for an inhabitable world that spatialises the world’s best cocktails and creates a fully immersive alcohol environment.

The focus will be on the flavour sensation that occurs when art meets the bartending.

Bompas & Parr , Smoky cocktails. Photo © Beth Evans. Taken form <i>Cocktails with Bompas & Parr</i> published by Anova Books — Bompas & Parr, Smoky cocktails. Photo © Beth Evans. Taken form *Cocktails with Bompas & Parr* published by Anova Books

Guests will be asked to don special protective suits to enter. The cloud is entirely composed of fine spirits and mixer at a ratio of 1:3 and made using powerful humidifiers to super-saturate the air. Alcohol enters the bloodstream through the body’s mucus membranes: primarily the lungs but also the eyeballs.

With humidity at 140 per cent, there is so much alcohol in the air, you can see less than a metre but the high humidity level enhances flavour perception. And by breathing the cocktail, alcohol bypasses the liver allowing you to consume 40 percent less (with correspondingly reduced calories) to feel the same effect! Bompas & Parr has worked with respiratory scientists and chemists to calculate safe dwell times guests can remain in the cloud.