Isozaki and Kapoor’s inflatable concert hall, usually in Japan, is in Europe this month

Designed after the Fukushima disaster by architect Pritzker Arata Isozaki and sculptor Anish Kapoor, together with Michael Haefliger and Masahide Kajimoto, Ark Nova is both a habitable work of art and a symbol of cultural rebirth. Since 2013 it has hosted a music festival of the same name in Japan and now, for the first time, it is moving to Lucerne, Switzerland.   The programming of the "Lucerne Festival Ark Nova," curated by the Lucerne Festival and running through Sept. 14, ranges from classical and crossover genres to jazz, folk and pop. Among the most anticipated performers are pianist Igor Levit, Wayne Marshall, who most embodies the crossover spirit of the event, and young Georgian Giorgi Gigashvili.  

Michael Haefliger, Executive and Artistic Director of Lucerne Festival

The inhabitable installation, reminiscent of a giant flower in shades of aubergine-pink, traveled from Japan to Europe by symbolically crossing the Cape of Good Hope before settling on the "Lidowiese," the shore of Lake Lucerne. Made of a PVC-coated polyester membrane just 0.6 mm thick, it requires no supporting structure, can be inflated in about ten minutes and accommodates up to 300 people, transforming the "everywhere" into an immersive concert hall.   A rare combination of architecture, art, engineering, and music, Ark Nova aims to create a suspended, almost fairy-tale-like world built on the idea that music not only serves to entertain, but can give hope even when everything else seems destined not to last