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What is the Luminarium?
An amazing large-scale inflatable maze filled with light and color
Dale Dougherty
September 12, 2025
The Luminarium will be at Maker Faire Bay Area (photos by Architects of Air)
Table of Contents
The Luminarium comes to Maker Faire Bay Area
What is the Luminarium? It is a “dazzling maze of winding paths and soaring domes where natural forms, Islamic architecture, Archimedean solids, and Gothic cathedrals meld into an inspiring mix of design and engineering.” It is the work of Architects of Air by Alan Parkinson. This will be the first time that the Luminarium will appear in the Bay Area. You’ll see the large, pneumatic sculpture near the entrance to Maker Faire Bay Area.
Overhead view (photos by Architects of Air)
Alan Parkinson’s intention is to stimulate “a sense of wonder to the beauty of light and color, and create an environment where the visitors’ experience is influenced by their own relation to space.”
Interior of the Luminarium (photos by Architects of Air)
I design luminaria because I want to share my sense of wonder at the phenomenon of light. A luminarium provides the frame for an encounter with a light whose surprising and simple intensity cuts through conditioned perception.
I’ve long had an interest in light. At 11 years of age I was a keen photographer with my own darkroom, and in my twenties I studied photography at degree level — with a particular interest in the phenomena of photography and the material of the photograph.
In 1982 I came by accident into the world of inflatables. I had taken a part-time job as a minibus driver for a community project to supplement my work as a photography teacher. The project provided work in the community for criminal offenders and they, in turn, supervised the play activity of groups identified as “in need” (inner-city kids’ groups, centers for adults and children with handicaps). The offenders had built a large bouncy airbed and my job was just a half-day a week, ferrying the inflatable and the offenders and supervising the play session.
The airbed had many structural weaknesses and I eventually sought to replace it with a better structure. The community project, called The Windbag Inflatable Project, was very supportive of my experiments with structures and over the years I gradually developed my competence for design in the plastic medium. In 1992, I established myself as an “Architect of Air” to build and tour my luminarium designs.
My inspirations have been drawn from structures — whether they’re natural, geometric, or architectural such as Gothic cathedrals, Islamic architecture, or the work of innovators such as Gaudi, Frei Otto, and Buckminster Fuller.
Artist Alan Parkinson inside the Luminarium (photos by Architects of Air)
Visiting the Luminarium requires an add-on ticket for Maker Faire Bay Area. Space is limited.
Tickets: bayarea.makerfaire.com
Some of the makers you’ll see at Maker Faire Bay Area 2025
Join me on Wednesday, September 17 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for a conversation with some of the makers who will be exhibiting their projects at Maker Faire Bay Area 2025. Register for this Zoom session here.
Dorian Todd - Full Contact Engineering: Robotics. Tic Tac Toe against an AI, take-home art from a “PenBot,” and explore a lineup of combat robots and an open-source hexapod
Erin Scheessele - Organ Bike. The Organ Bike is a pedal-powered pipe organ you can play on the go, leading to the Orgelkids booth where you can build your own working organ and discover the magic of “The King of Instruments.”
Wayne Pavalko - Maker Buoy, Explore the Ocean on a Budget. Maker Buoy is an open-source, low-cost buoy design that uses off-the-shelf hardware to collect and share vital ocean data with researchers and educators worldwide.
Maker Buoy by Wayne Pavalko
Becca Priddy - Dimensional Dreams: Coral Reef. Dimensional Dreams: Coral Reef is an illuminated 4-foot shadow box featuring layered acrylic coral and over 10 species of LED-animated tropical fish, creating a mesmerizing underwater scene controlled with a treasure chest button.
Taylor Pope & Megan Gardner - Fernside Dragons Custom Inflatables. Fernside Dragons, a creative maker duo, showcase a variety of handmade inflatable dragons and costumes, inviting you to explore, interact, and learn the art of inflatable creations.
Sara Bolduc - Glow Plushies. Glow Plushies lets you build and customize your own light-up creatures using easy-to-assemble kits with colorful laser-cut felt—perfect for makers ages 10 and up.
Anna Gribovsky - Aquatica. Aquatica is a 15-foot glowing kelp tree with LED-lit jellyfish, flowing tentacles, and ambient ocean sounds, creating an immersive, ethereal underwater experience.
Aquatica by Anna Gribowsky
It’s what you make of it that matters
By Jennifer Blakeslee
Ukrainian makers have been busy, even amidst the ongoing conflict that has consumed their country. While drones and other instruments of war and survival are front and center in the conversations we’ve had with them, creatives have also been busy sharing their experience of war in imaginative ways, including at four Maker Faires across 2024 and 2025 — two in Kyiv and two in Kam'yanets'-Podil's'kyi near the Moldovan border — that have been held in the country since the start of the war and, recently, at Burning Man.
This year’s offering to Black Rock City, NV (where the festival is held) was Black Cloud, a 30-meter-long inflatable storm cloud that flashes with lightning against a nonstop soundscape of real war recordings — missiles, sirens, and explosions. Its urgent, existential message: “The storm is coming for you, too. Get ready.” And, as is often the case in the desert, a storm did come, ripping apart the monumental installation shortly after its erection. What happened next is a testament to the creativity and resilience that defines makers everywhere. They rebuilt, something different, but with an equally powerful message.
Maker Faire Orange County this weekend
By Jennifer Blakeslee with Ethan Coulter
For the fourth year in a row, Maker Faire Orange County — or MFOC for short — will serve up the special sauce of Maker Faires everywhere with its own unique twist. The event is strong on robotics, 3D printing, community makerspaces and their members, and (unsurprisingly) the highly skilled film-industry-adjacent makers who populate Southern California and create astounding things both on set and in their workshops. We asked the producer of the event, Ethan Coulter of the nonprofit Ocreate, to highlight three projects coming this year.
He called out the work of Lowrider Labs, which in addition to bringing the tricked-out and souped-up lowriders that are part of the regional culture, will be providing a motor for people to wrench on, a tire-mounting station, a pinstriper, and airbrushing tools for participants to try out. Ethan also shared, “Every year I went to Maker Faire Bay Area, I always loved the steam engine stuff and have been trying to get that to happen down here since we started. This year we are excited to finally have some steam power stuff coming along with the blacksmiths to teach some blacksmithing skills.”
Lastly, he highlighted the work OCreate is doing to support community makerspaces both at and outside the Maker Faire: “We are SUPER excited about launching our new makerspace called the Makr Lab, part of a plan to open a network of makerspaces starting here in OC. At this year’s event, we are planning to host a mini makerspace live event in our new makerspace village. We plan to have a laser engraver, embroidery machine, vinyl cutter, draw bot, and more. We are encouraging people to come customize their badge and get hands-on with making things.” Here’s a sneak peek at the awesome badge they designed for the event!
Make Things is a weekly newsletter for the Maker community produced by Dale Dougherty and members of the Make: team. This newsletter lives on the web at makethings.make.co
I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas, projects or news items about the maker community. Email me - [email protected].