Back in 2014, the "blackest" material ever produced was revealed. Dubbed Vantablack, this material absorbed 99.96 percent of light that hit it. Now designer Asif Khan has created a stunning pavilion spray-painted with Vantablack for the Winter Olympics commissioned by Hyundai.
When Surrey Nanosystems developed a spray paint form of Vantablack in 2016 a controversy quickly brewed. UK artist Anish Kapoor began collaborating with the company and eventually gained exclusive rights to non-reflective pigment for artistic uses.
Asia Khan's latest building is the first architectural use of Vantablack spray paint, excitingly demonstrating how covering an entire three dimensional structure in the material turns it into a surreal, almost completely flat object. Heightening the illusion, Khan planted hundreds of LED lights into the curved facade creating a kind of star field effect.
Inside the pavilion Khan has built a stark white room containing a giant water installation. The installation inside emits 25,000 water droplets every minute. Each droplet travels through a minuscule landscape designed to resemble a picture of a city viewed from space. The entire experience continually shifts the viewers sense of scale, moving from the astronomical star field outside, to a planet viewed from above inside.
"In the project I wanted to move from the scale of the cosmos to the scale of water droplets in a few steps. The droplets contain the same hydrogen from the beginning of the universe as the stars," explains Khan of the overall concept.
Click through to the gallery for a closer look at this fascinating architectural installation.
Source: Asif Khan
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Plus that stuff is likely carcinogenic and constantly shedding...