Pneuhaus builds a pavilion of 221 camera obscuras that sees like a dragonfly

Pneuhaus has built an inflatable pavilion containing 221 camera obscura cells, each one projecting a live image of Minneapolis onto a translucent inner membrane. The installation, Compound Camera No.3, stood at Peavey Plaza during MODE Fest, September 18–20, 2026. No screens. No digital sensors. Just glass, air and nylon.

The Rhode Island studio modeled the pavilion on the compound eyes of dragonflies, whose ommatidia each point at a different slice of the surroundings. Every cell in the pavilion holds a glass double-convex lens, its proportions and focal length set by optical calculation. Concave and convex surfaces direct views both outward and inward, so hundreds of images coexist inside one structure — a working argument that perspective doesn't have to be singular.

How does a building focus?

By hand. The structure is made from urethane-coated nylon, glass lenses and air, and it needs no rigid frame. A baffle layer separates and aligns the inner and outer membranes, and the soft surface lets visitors press individual cells to adjust the focus of the projected images themselves. It's the rare optical instrument you're allowed to poke.

The pavilion covers more than 700 sqft, installs in a few hours and withstands winds up to 40 mph. A curved entrance opens into a larger atrium, so the sequence of spaces expands and contracts as visitors move through — closer to a throat than a foyer, in the best sense.

What does the design team say?

The project answers a specific irritation. 'Today, most imagery reaches people through flat, backlit screens,' Pneuhaus's design team said. 'Compound Camera No.3 offers a quieter, more physical counterpoint: vision one can walk into, touch, and adjust by hand; a reminder that seeing can still be soft and playful rather than solely high-tech and mediated.'

This is the third iteration. Pneuhaus built the original Compound Camera nearly a decade ago with 109 cells projecting views from a single point. No.3 doubles the cell count and abandons the dome for a distributed, insect-like form — less a camera, more an eye with a floor plan.

The comparison holds: where the 2026 version's 221 lenses give 360-degree cityscapes, the earlier 109-cell dome could only stare straight ahead. Ten years of development bought the pavilion peripheral vision. Whether the next decade buys it an exoskeleton is Pneuhaus's problem.